WIDOWS' PENSIONS SCHEME.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14238, 29 December 1911, Page 10

WIDOWS' PENSIONS SCHEME.

TO THE EDITOR OF 'Tflß PRESS " • ,« ir 'T; Ua ji ar * he norn de .plume of "Consider," there appears a letter in your issue of; Wednesday, 27th inst on the widows' pensions schorao. Your correspondent is clearly under a misappixdiensiou with respect to tbe scheme chiefly owing to a rather misleading Iress report-m your issuo of the 21st It would appear as if your Correspondent is under the impression that *f a widow and, say, four young children are shipped- out to Now Zealand, she would, alter six months' residence, obtain a pension of £30. At least that; seems to be the only meaning that can bo taken from the following statement in the letter referred to : "It seems that ajiy widen* is eligible for tins form of assistance after a brief residence of only six months. Can wo afiord such bounty on such easy conditions? Surely to cifer it is to invito prospective widows, with invalid husbands to flock to our shores in time to i«put in the period of residence needed ! to secure the benefits." As you are doubtless aware, such is not the intention of the Act, but even if it was, the dying husband would not bo allowed to land in New Zealand, tliat is, if tho .precautions taken at present '*■ woro continued. Tlio Act, however, makes it perfectly clear that no widow is eligible for *tho pension unless she has a child or children under fourteen years of age, but such child or children must have been born in Now Zealand, lor instance, let us tako the case of a woman who has just lost her husband and is left with tour children. Two of them were bom out of New Zealand, ono was born about months after tho family came Zealand, and tlio fourth was born three years after the family came to New Zealand. Tho widow will be eligible for a pension of £12 a year, the amount allowed a widow with one child. Clauses 4 and 5 will make the position clear to your correspondent:— "4. No widow shall be entitled to a pension unless she is resident in "New Zea-

i land, and "has a child or children to s whom this Act is applicable. > "5. This Act shall not apply to-: * (a) Any .child over the -ago of f- olir- : teen; (b) auy illegitimate child, un- ' less legitimated by the subsequ2nt ! marriage of tho parents; (c) any ■ adopted child; (d) any child born out " of New Zealand; (c) any child born ; in New Zealand unless its mother was resident in New Zealand for not less " than six months before its birth." I hope I have mado the position clear . with regard to tho working of tho particular provisions referred to by your , correspondent "Consider." —Yours, etc., JOHN BARR. Redcliffs, "December 23.