GROWING VOTE FOR PENSIONS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22249, 13 November 1937, Page 16

GROWING VOTE FOR PENSIONS

MR HAMILTON ADVISES CAUTION FURTHER INCREASE EXPECTED BY MINISTER CFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter.! WELLINGTON, November 12. -Not enough," interjected Mr J. O'Brien (Government, Westland), when attention was drawn by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton) in the House of Representatives to-day to the fact that the vote for the Pensions Department this year was •£ 6,679,423,, compared 4 with an actual expenditure last year of £5,072,735.

Mr Hamilton said that New Zealanders were a sympathetic people and it was only right that those who had iallen by,the wayside should be helped, out it was important to keep a balance. He was not opposing the vote; they could Quite easily pass a much larger sum. The point to remember, however, was that the money which, was being given to people without their having to do any work for it . was mounting up. "We must not overlook the fact," Mr Hamilton added, "that the people who produce the wealth are also entitled to a fair deal. I sometimes think the dairy farmer, toiling away all the ttme, deserves our sympathy just as much as any other man." A Government member: Poor old dairy farmer. The Minister for Pensions (the Hon. W. E. Parry): He has the opportunity of participating in this money some day.

Mr Hamilton: Yes. if he lives long «uough. "Since this Government came into power there has been a total pensions increase of £3.431.000, for which I make no apology at all," said the Minister, when replying. "If ever an increase in expenditure was justified it was that. I am sure. It will be even greater in the future, for I think it should increase according to the condition of the country, and until the country has provided decent conditions for all those who cannot do so for themselves the Government will not have done the fair thing by the people." The Minister said that in the near Suture legislation would come before the House providing that a person might be absent from the country for 1.2 months together with one month *or every 10 years' residence in New Zealand and still be eligible for a pension. There was now a considerably greater number of miners' pensions than formerly, because the de- i iinition of miner's phthisis had been widened.