OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11462, 28 December 1897, Page 3

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib,— lf a majority of those dear oldi gentlemen in the Upper House have for the time hindered the passage of the above and several other useful and necessary measures, they will, without doubt,, have the gruesome satisfaction of knowing* that they have hastened the end of a r number of aged people who were hopingAhe beneficent efforts of our ■ Premier',

would have been crowned with success. The thought strikes one if all the trouble and care that has been exercised over these most important reforms are to be killed by these old pensioners, would it not be better to allow them to originate all legislation, and let our M.H.R.’s revisetheir productions. It would be interesting; to know what the discussion of these*:; measures has cost the country, and also' the amount of thrift exercised by these sapient legislators, and also the reason of their appearance in the Upper Chamber. However, Nemesis is on their track, and the Old Age Pensions Bill, thanks; to our Premier and our Liberal members, will yet be an accomplished fact, these dear old souls notwithstanding.—l am, &c., OXFORD.

PARLIAMENTARY PETITIONS, TO THE EDITOR.

Sik, —The letter signed J. S. Myers, which appeared in your issue of Dec. 18, does not afford the public sufficient, information to enable them to arrive at-a* clear understanding of the case submitted to the Mto Z Committee. The differences between Myers and Tomlinson are of long standing, and have been frequently before the Courts in various forms, and all the* facts and evidence are therefore public property. The question, originally, was a comparatively small matter, but like a rolling snowball, it accumulated rapidly in bulk as it went along, ending at last in overwhelming Myers in wreck and. ruin, brought about, the latter alleges,, through the admission of false verbal evidence, which evidence was subsequently completely disproved by documentary evidence not available at the time the alleged, false verbal evidence was given. Now, evidence may be false without amounting to wilful and corruptperjury ; still, if an innocent party in a cause suffers through false evidence being wrongfully admitted against him, whether indictable or not, surely the sufferer must bo entitled to some remedy. Whether a Parliamentary Committee is the proper tribunal to ; appeal to I express no opinion. The whole affair is a lamentable one, and should operate as a warning to others that seeking redresg in courts of law is, at bast,, but an uncertain and shadowy enterprise. «It is better to bear those ills we have,” : &o.—l am, &c., SPECTATOR.