OLD AGE PENSIONERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 177, 21 April 1908, Page 10

OLD AGE PENSIONERS.

Sir.—As reported in your columns, the Auckland Liberal and Labour Moderation deserve a meed of praise 'fov drawing the attention of the Government and tho public to •the scandalous penalties, according to the report, inflicted by-law on old,age pensioners in cases of drunkenness. What, members of Parliament could have'been thinking of to allow such to become law is beyond comprehension. "All flesh is weak "—particularly the old. If a. pensioner happens to .take a glass of spirits or beer—lie often needs it— L and if it , overcomes'him, and,.he is locked up and convicted, it appears he is liable' to a penalty equal to £130 (live years' pension), whereas an ordinary individual, for a similar offence, is fined only iivo shillings, or, perhaps, lot off with a caution. Why 'is this thus ? Do our law-makers believe they can make a man sober by taking his food from him? Such, an act uncharitable and cruel, and' any sane person upholding such a law deserves five years' confinement. • When the pension is granted, it' is understood that all past errors of life, if any, aro obliterated. Why, then, should ojd ago pensioners be so unmercifully and uncharitably'dealt with?. Although the Federation's suggestions are an improvement on our lawmakers' ruling, I think that for a first offence the forfeiture of one month's pension should be sufficient, for a second offence three months, for a third offence six months,'and so on, doubling tho time for every subsequent offence.. To suspend the pension for fivo years means, in very many cases, disqualification for the remainder of an old-ago pensioner's life. Such penalties as, are said 'to exist aro excessive and inhuman, and it is to bo hoped tho move mado by the abovo ; Federation will attract tho attention of members of Parliament and the Government to the subject, and that an alteration will be mado by the Act being amended in above direction—l am, etc., April 15. .1 SYMPATHY.