OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1898, Page 4

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

The colony must by this time be growing as weary as the House is of the almost profitless discussions inevitably raised by the illogical, self-contradictor}', and generally faulty measure the Premier is pleased to miscall an Old Age Pensions Bill. The more carefully the Bill is considered and the longer its provisions are debated, the clearer it becomes that, if passed iv its present shape, it will prove hopelessly unworkable, and scarcely a credit to the reasoning faculties of our colonial legislators. Every thinking man and woman avlio has followed during recent years the history of the Old Age Pensions agitation in different parts of the world must see plainly that the path of the reformer who seeks to put in practice some rational pensions scheme is beset with pitfalls too numerous to describe. The idea that the ai>ed worker must receive a competence untainted with thw slur of charity has long been simmering in the minds of thoughtful and humane observers of social phenomena, and the lines along which such an idea can find expression have become more and more? distinct as time went by. But evon thus most of the advanced men in the Old Country still regard the day of realisation as tar off. In his monthly circular for August to the Northumberland

Minors' Association, Mr. Thus. Burt, the Radical M.P. for Morpetb, very pertinently makes the following remarks on the subject : — " It is as nauseous as it is demoralising for politicians to bid against each other for voles on questions like old age pensions when they must know — if they know anything — that there is not the least likelihood of dealing practically with the subject by legislation for' many years fco come. . . . While the subject grows in importance, and while I more and more regard it as one of the most vital social problems of the age, I feel with increasing strength that there is only one just and logical solution, and that is the establishment of a universal pension scheme for old age based on the lines advocated by Mr. Charles Booth." The quotation proves the difficulties wise men see in the way, and the conviction they hold that these must be faced before the real wishes of tbe people with regard to pensions can be properly met. Mr. Burt was speaking of the United Kingdom when he talked of. the " many years" that must elapse before legislation could be carried, but his words of warning, coming as they do from a staunch friend of progress and of " Labour," should carry weight with those who talk of blindly supporting the absurdly childish legislation the Premier wishes to inscribe upon the Statute Book. We need not here repeat our criticisms of the financial anomalies, but we would ask attention for two important points raised during last night's debate — points that illustrate iv a forcible manner the dangers and anomalies contained in the Bill. The first of these is the question of whether the measure is merely an extension of the charitable aid S3'stem or a genuine pensions scheme. It is growing more and more obvious every day that the Bill as it stands is purely and simply a piece of charitable legislation, aud crude even at that, for it is not confiued to the necessitous poor. The question was raised in the House twice last night by^ amendments proposed by Messrs. Smith and Massey, and the Government by a majority of four only prevented the introduction of a paragraph that virtually left the pensions administration to I be administered by local bodies, like charitable aid. It is absurd to set up a new department, and to incur heavy expenses, for carrying on a S3'stem that is not a pensions system at all, but, however it may be cloaked in verbiage, is a mere extension of the charitable institutions of the country. Before a separate administration is needed a genuine pensions scheme, distinct from the charity taint, must be devised. The second matter of importance discussed 3'esterday was the permanent appropriation made by the Bill. Parliament should undoubtedly have the right to review annually the working of the system, and to consider it like other departments on the Estimates. These permanent appropriations are signs of Parliamentary decliuc, and lead to the conviction that the Executive is encroaching in a dangerous manner upon the rights of the people and their representatives to the control of the public purse. These rights are as vital "to liberty to-day as they were centuries ago, and it would be a sorry day for the democracy if it ever abated them one jot or tittle. It is argued that an annual appropriation would create a sense of insecurity about the pensions, one branch of the Legislature alone being practically able by refusing to pass the vote to repeal the Pensions Act. This is the only argument of any force that can be urged for a permanent appropriation, aud it is considerably weakened by the fact that tbe educational system of the colouy^ works well with annual appropriations. The v main point, however, is tliat the representatives of the people should always have complete power of review over public expenditure, and no vague motives of possible contretemps can justify any departure from this fundamental principle, upon which is founded the personal liberty our race has so long enjoyed. Mr. Montgomery's amendment, carried against the Government last night b3 r a majority of two, struck out the words " rest of his life " with a view to removing all idea of vested interest in the pensions, and so paved the way for the annual appropriations which it is to be hoped the House will at least make part of the Bill if it is to become law.