THE PENSIONS ACT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11545, 30 March 1903, Page 5

THE PENSIONS ACT.

(feom a c;onnr:si'Oxi>Evr.) WELLINGTON, March 23. The Stipendiary Magistrate to-day settkd the somewhat unusual case begun in tbe Old Age Pensions' Court lost week, in which a pensioner named Horefall was required to explain how it was that during tlie four years in which he had been re- j ceiving a full pension he had been able to pay off £117 owing on a email property. It was etated in evidence that the pensioner had not relied entirely upon his pension and earnings as a coal dealer : n a small way, but had been assisted by { friends and hie family. Ho was also a careful man, and had denied himself everything except the bare necessities of life in order to get a permanent roof over his head. His Worship said that that woe not the point. The pensioner might be, and no doubt was, a very estimable man, but the fact remained that he had got hold of the Government for £72 in pensions, and had been able to add another £45 ont of hie earnings. That showed conclusively that he had committed a breach of the Act. j The Registrar said he must eek for a refund of the whole of tbe pension money,! and Dr. McArthur replied that he did not see liow he could avoid making euch an j order. The pensioner was accordingly' ordered to make restitution of the £72, and I hie pension was cancelled. It was pointed j out that he could raise money on hia property, and if he then found he was unable to make ends meet, ho could make a further application for a pension, showing hds position, and the Court might see its way to grant him a reduced pension. The pensioner's friends in Court eaid the Pensions Act was evidently no encouragement to thrift. The Magistrate agreed, but eaid he nrufit interpret the law as he found it.