POLITICAL PENSIONS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 January 1925, Page 8

POLITICAL PENSIONS

THE SYSTEM IN ENGLAND

Disraeli, too, drew a pension (£2000) for years, though, he was not a poor man. Like both the Pitts, he received much financial assistance from friends. He bought Hughenden out of money given to him by Lord George Bentinck and his brothers. . . In recent times there has been similar lack of uniformity. Generally exCabinet Ministers have not taken a pension, and, if not wealthy have solved the problem of getting a livelihood in their own way. This movement was strengthened bv Mr. Asquith’s action after he had been Home Secretary in Mr. Gladstone’s last Administration. He returned to his work at the Bar, thereby causing much comment.

But some ex-Ministers have drawn pensions for long periods. The most tenacious was Mr. C. P. Villers, who died a few years ago at the age of ninety-three. He represented Wolverhampton for about forty years without once, it is said, either setting foot in that town or speaking in the House of Commons. A statue of him was erected in Wolverhampton during his lifetime. As an ex-Cabinet Minister he drew a political pension for some forty years on the ground of his small means, and yet he left £90,000; Of late year, however, there has been a change of opinion on political pensions. Formerly it was considered quite right and proper that a politician who had served a certain number of years should take one; but now the propriety of such a thing is ques tioned.

Public hostility, to the system is so great, in fact, that not long ago an exCabinet Minister gave up ..the pension of £2OOO that he had drawn for ma years. It is known, too, that when another ex - Minister surrendered his pension he was really in need of the money.

During the recent British election campaign the frequent irrepressible “voice” was frequently raised about political pensions. Many people are under the impression that a British Cabinet Minister, or relinquishing office, automatioaly, becomes entitled to a pension for life, just as if he were an ex-Lord ‘Chancellor. An ex-Cabinet Minister is not eligible for a pension unless he has given at least four years’ service or its equivalent in an office of the first class, six years’ service in an office of the second class for ten years’ service in an office of the third class, and unless he declares that his private income is. insufficient to maintain his station in life. There are, moreover, only twelve political pensions in all, divided into three ‘classes, the maximum rates of which are £2OOO, £I2OO and £BOO respectively. • So an ex-Minister may or may not draw a pension. It was so in the old days. The Duke of Newcastle refused • one, notwithstanding that he had reduced his estate, from £25,000 to £6OOO in trying to induce people to support the Government while he helil office. On the other hand, the elder Pitt, his colleague, accepted a pension. He could hardly have done otherwise because money melted in his hands' ’‘His appetite was so capricious that there were always three dinners in course of preparation for him, so that food should oe in readiness whenever he felt inclined to eat.

Yi hen * travelling, too, lie did things on the grand scale. During a journov from Bath to London he shut himself up in an inn at Marlborough for some weeks, and very soon lie seemed to have an army of attendants, his liverv appearing everywhere. Curious travellers discovered that he had insisted during his stay at the inn—one the -largest in England—his liverv slio-id he worn by all waiters and stable boys.