AID TO WIDOWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3345, 11 October 1911, Page 6

AID TO WIDOWS.

PENSIONS UP TO £3O. APPLIES TO EUROPEANS AND . MAORIS*. (From our Parliamemtarv Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 10. The scheme of State aid to widows with young children has been embodied in a Bill introduced in the House of Representatives this afternoon. • In explaining its provisions this evening Sir J. Ward stated that the Bill provided for a pension beng paid' to widows with children, where there was one child, the annual pension was £l2, where there were two £lB. and where there were three £24. A widow with more than three children was to receive £3O a year. These sums would be paid irrespective of any sums that the widow might be earning in obtaining a. living for herself and her family, but the pensions would be subject to diminution by £1 for every £1 by which the widow’s estimated annual income exceeded £3O. Under the Bill "estimated annual incomes” means the aggregate income from all sources other than personal earnings, or a pension under the Bill. The Act did not apply to any child over 14 years old, nor to any _ illegitimate child, unless it were legitimated l>y the subsequent marriage of its parents. The Act did not apply to any adopted child, or to any child horn out of New Zealand unless its mother had been resident in New Zealand within not less than six months of its birth. Some of the clauses were taken from the Old Age Pensions Aot. Mr Her ribs: Does it apply to Maoris ? Sir J. Ward: Yes; it applies to anv widows in the country. No, distinction is drawn between Europeans and Natives.

The Prime Minister added that the estimated cost of this provision for widows was £35,000 per annum. Mr Herd man asked whether if an order benefiting a widow were made against a near relative under the Desbitute Persons Act, she would be entitled to benefit under the Bill? The Prime Minister stated that a magistrate would have to decide the point, but a widow benefiting under the Destitute Persons Act could not .benefit under this Bill, and vice versa.