OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 12900, 24 August 1906, Page 3

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

[From Our Paeuamentxex Betoetkr.] August 23. In Ills report, the Registrar of Old Ago Pensions (Air J. Ewan Smith.) says? Th< principal event of the yeadr was the of an Act which increased the rrmrimirm pension to £26, tbo immediate resnlt of whicli was not only an enlarged expenditure, hut also a marked addition to tho ; number of participants. On the 31st March) last the number of pensioners on the lollj stood at 12,582, being 812 memo than at the close of tho provims year, and 194; less than for the 1902 period, when, tho! record number (12,776) was on the tolL, The Maori pensioners numbered 657, Although tho number of pensioners had increased, the Registrar notes with satisfaction that the percentage of pensioners to. the population eligible by age and residence had not gone up. Of tho 12,582 pensioners on the roll, 10,398, or 82 per cent, of the whole, were in receipt of the full pension, of £26. Male pensioners arc more numerous than females by 1,930, and seventy-, two is the ago of the largest number—1,168 Europeans, seventy-three being tho next, with Lll2 pensioners. Tho rmrnlw of new claims made during the past was 5,027, as against 1,683 received during ] tbo previous year. Of this number, 2,075- ! ' were granted, 590 rejected, and 892 awaited investigation. Tho Maori claimants during the year numbered 125. The total number of claimants from 1898 to March 31 last was 28,662, of whom 21,846 were admitted. The cost of administration ‘ for the past year was £4,758. The pertoentago of tho total cost of administering 'the Act to the gross payment of £1,428,372 was only 1.67 per cent.