PARLIAMENTARY UNION.

Evening Star, Issue 12873, 24 July 1906, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY UNION.

There was a smaller attendance than usual at last night's weekly meeting of the Dunedin Parliamentary Union. In the absence of Mr A. R. Barclay, M.H.U., the Speaker's chair was occupied by Mr J. B. Callan. The first order of the day was the second reading of a Bill to amend the Old Age Pensions Act. This measure, which was in charge of Mr L. T. B\anard. Minister of Labor, provided for a universal system of pensions for all residents in tlie colony for twenty-five years who are over sixty-five years, old, with the necessary safeguards as to character. The amount proposed was £26 per annum, but provision was made for this being supplemented in case of voluntary contributions being made by colonists, the Government subsidising Lhese voluntary contributions up to 10s in the £. A further progressive proviso was to the effect that anyone under sixty-five (with the necessary colonial residence) debarred from earning adequate means of support by illness or physical deformity, shall be entitled to receive a pension up to £25 a year. The Bill proposed the establishment of a pension fund, to be endowed by the setting apart of 250,000 acres of Crown land. In moving the second reading. Mr Biunard said that the provisions in connection with voluntary contributions had been put in to encourage thrift- Tlie contributions could be small weekly or monthly payments. Any payment so made sufficient to yield a pension of , £26 would be so subsidised by (be Go- i vernment that the contributor would it- | eeive a pension of £39 per annum at the | age of fifty-five. It was comparable to the life assurance principle. A Member : Rough on the insurance companies. Mr Burnard said that the moneys invested in insurance companies in this way were so small that the companies would not be affected. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr W. S, Bedford) said that the Government had brought down a Socialistic measure which they knew would receive general support after the defeat last week of a genuine policy measure which they had elected to stand or fall by. Mr P.. Gilkison said that this was not a Socialistic bill. It had really been the idea of the late Sir Harry Atkinson, a noted Conservative. An Opposition Member : It is Socialistic The Premier : Humanitarian ! Mr Gilkison concluded with an appeal to abolish party government, and all work together for the common good. Mr W. Davidson, in speaking of one aspect of the Bill, said that every man worthy of the name of man worried about tlie future, not so much on his own account as on his wife's. Mr Hay : What about the bachelors? Mr Davidson : Oh, bother the bachelors ! They are not worth considering.—■ (Laughter.) He continued that he did not agree with the principle of a pension dying with the the man. The annuity should be transferable, on tbe husband's death, to the widow, even though she were not of an age to be entitled to it. Mr J. Gilchrist objected to the richwho, he said, were so at tbe expense of the worker—participating in the pension even though they contributed to it. The old age pension was merely a palliative to a faulty state of society. Mr W. Michael also'criticised tho Bill from a Socialistic standpoint. He pointed out that the Government professed to be freeholders on the iand question, yet proposed to lease Crown lands to endow a pension fund. Mr J. LUley favored a compulsory contribution from all adults over twenty-one this to bo subsidised by the Government but not to be handled by them, as they could not be trusted.—(Laughter.) The money should be entrusted to a large insurance company in the Old Country—say, the Prudential. Mr Edwards : Who would hold them ? Mr Lilley : This is a very small colony, and it is going to stop borrowing some day^-(Qaestion)—and then our finances won't fce in such a buoyant state. Then if we have a large order like this old pension scheme we would have to meet it, and there would be the old story—the manipulation of the public funds. If we bad the insurance company at our backs they would pay the money, and the Government would have no trouble at all in connection with the matter. Mr W. R. Brough favored compulsory rather than voluntary contributions, and disputed Mr Gilchrist's Socialistic tenet that the rich hare become so and continue so at tho expense of the worker. Mr A. H. Burton compared the Opposition \jri& tbe Roman Senator who

whatcrer the matter nnder discussion, always expressed tie one sentiment, " lenda est Carthago must be> destroyed. So here, whatever the i subject, certain mysterious statemente were sure to be made, notably "this abominable system of Individualism which is bringing this country to rain. "■—(Laughter and applause^) Mr ;C. Darling took exception to the provisions exchiding criminals, etc., from participating in the pensions. Mr H. Moss could not support the Bill, as he considered this young country was overburdened with such schemes as it proposed. After further discussion < in which Messrs J. F. Kirby, Hewitt, L. D. Ritchie, J. Edwards, and A. D. Aitken (Premier) took pazt, the second reading of the 821 was passed by 26 to 4.