AGE BENEFIT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25741, 1 March 1949, Page 7

AGE BENEFIT

Sir,—Why are recipients of age benefits not allowed to earn more than £1 a week? Many of these people are being forced into mental and physical decay by compulsory inactivity. Why not allow those who are eligible for age benefit to -earn up to £3 a week, and put them somewhere near the standard of M.P.’s? The money would not be a charge on the Social Security Fund, and these people could retain a measure of independence and self-respect, and production be increased. Or is it that those, eligible for age benefits' do not constitute a sufficiently powerful pressure group?—Yours, etc., t W.H.Y. February 25, 1949. Sir,—Hundreds of pensioners will agree with “Nemo.” Unf or tunnel y we cannot adopt the “go slow” policy or have stop-work meetings: but one thing we can and surely will do, and that is to vote solidly for the National Party at the next election.—Yours, etc., OMEN. February 23, 1949. Sir,—“Nemo” is of opinion that the Nationalists “will make living conditions fairer for the aged.” Irrespective of possible defects ; the present systefh/ St lsf“Kafd' th - '•imagine' anyone having such faith in a party with the past history of the Opposition as regards pensions, etc.—Yours, etc., FAIR play. February 25, 1949. WOOLBTON BAND Sir,—l have been watching the Woolston Band for a number of years. They are in the same place as before, and many thanks to Mr R. Estall.—Yours, etc., „ , W. LANE. February 27, 1949. MR LYON ON N.Z. Sir, —How nice it is of Mr Lyon, formerly headmaster of Rugby, to find New Zealanders simple, young, and raw, with a way of life lacking in incentive to initiative, strenuous industry, and the exercise, of intelligence. The cause, he thinks, is our social security scheme, and the gradual elimination of private enterprise. He has been led to believe that a modified security scheme is likely to be soon brought in by a future Government. but “not without bitterness." One cannot help wondering who his informant is. and who those patriotic (?) New Zealanders are who criticised so violently* “in his hearing” our present way of life. The “superior” viewpoint of these self-righteous little leader men is never a help to the happiness and true progress and peace of the world, and always reminds me of Ruskin’s .“The true test of a great man is his humility.”—Yours, etc., „ , H. T. WILLIS. February 28, 1949. [lt may save some correspondents trouble and help to prevent confusion over what Mr Lyon said and meant, if we quote now his reference (in the cablegram of February 24) to social security and possible changes in the system: * How far this attitude [complacent and comfortable jog-trot] is the result or the cause of the country’s social security scheme, it would be hard to say. Probably a bit of both. But it is, I imagine, by now so deep-rooted that it will survive even if the scheme is modified by a future Government, such modification is not unlikely though it may not be achieved without some bitterness. . . Ed., “The Press.”]