UNDER WHICH FLAG?

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1247, 2 October 1911, Page 6

UNDER WHICH FLAG?

PENSION APPLICANTS PLIGHT. It is indeed a fortunate porson, who, in tlio course of an average life-time, is not called upon, at eome time or otlicr, to tread tlio maze-like pathways of legal procedure— civil or otherwise. .Supposo (hough that llic poor, honest, and inuffennivc pioneer, with a pcnchnnt for longevity, has toilod along the hill of. life, skirting altogether tlio valley of Statulo I/aw, there is nowadays tlieodds-on chanco Hint ho will branch off the loilsomo road for a while at the sign-post 05, aud explore the Old Age Pensions dale. And then, perhaps, to the winds with a lifelong oblivion—(ho legal labyrijilh claims a belated novitiate. Such, at anyrnto, has been the experlenco of nil old lady, who arrived in Lyttelton in 18(iH, nnd in the intervening years performed many of those good offices in a countrywide community where, as a nurse, she answered the Kill of thosn in sickness and distress. The ninnssing of a fortune was not a coTollary of th« lot of tlio pioneer nurse, and nlxiut three years ago this old English-bred and Man-chester-born dame, who had shortly after herarrival in Now Zealand married a seafaring wooer from tho South of Europe, Bought for tlio Folace of the old ago pension. Sundry journeys from mid-Canter-bury to the Cbrlstchurch Pension Office, where marriage linos nnd children's liirthcortificatcs {in lieu of her Dwn birth cert!ficate) wero deposited Ln advocacy' of ago qualification, and particulars of Iter husband's foreign nationality, etc., suppliedj subsequent calls nnd inquiries at tho head office in Wellington (two years ago), when innumerable formalities were ngnin pursued; then more investigation in tho south by n.n Old Age Pension clerk and the country policcman-r-such is tlio synopsis of this little life drama, till thc'decision came that the Department was satisfied that the age-limit would bo .readied this coming November. Being now in Wellington, this frail old lady, in answer to a summons, appeared before the Pension Court the other day, with high expectations of the realisation of her pension hopes, but sho knew not tho pitfalls of Statute Law. After being sworn, tho magistrate, soanning tho papers supplied by tho official, said: "You were married to a foreigner, in regard (o whom no naturalisation papers can be found by tho Department, therefore in the eyes of tho law you are also a foreigner, and cannot ljo granted a pension until you, too, ore naturalised. Apply at onoo for naturalisation, nnd in a year's time you will be eligible to again apply for tho pension." The old lady stood dumbfounded at thia unexpected chapter in tho book of Statute Law, and it was with benumbed senses that sho was helped down from the wit-ness-box by tho Court orderly—adjudged a foreigner after living in illusion for forty years as a British subject, and exercising the voting and other privileges of the same! "Manchester born and bred—and now I have to be naturalised," was the solo ejaculation of her dismay as sho joined hor accompanying friend. Oh, tlio irony of it! But what of tho Old Age Pension officials who failed to advise the applicant three vcars ago of this stranglehold of Statute Law? .