OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 110, 11 May 1908, Page 4

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

A leading feature of the British budget is the proposal to allot something like six million pounds sterling per annum in the payment of old age pensions. Thcso pensions aro to com-

\ mence on the Ist January next, and j are designed to afford relief to inj digent persons of both sexes who are not less than 70 years old. The ques- | tion has been a subject of active dis- [ cussion for some time past, and I numerous schemes have been outt lined. How far that now proposed { by the Asquith Government will {prove acceptable remains to be seen. Some sections of the press already strongly condemn the proposals. < The plan, though it involves the expenditure of a large sum of money, appears to be a very modest one. It •apparently assumes that a man of 69 is still too young to require the relief which is accorded to old men. He must be 70 at least before he becomes; a fit object for- Government aid. And when he reaches that extreme age, the al- . lotted span of life, according to the Psalmist, he becomes entitled to 5s per week if he is not a lunatic, or has not recently been convicted of serious crime. Married couples living together are to ,be allowed 7s 6d ■ per week. These small doles may or course be supplemented by assistance from friends, but if a single individual has an income of 10£ per week, (or a married couple 15s), the pension will cease. ' The standard of living amongst the poor in England is no doubt very low, and food and clothing are obtainable at much cheaper rates than we are accustomed ta in New Zealand, so that these pensions may , be better than they appear, and no i doubt they will be appreciated by the . poor old people who are to benefit by i themr The weak spot in the proposal appears to be the absence of provision for the aged who have not yet attained three score years and ten. But as there are about half a million to come under the scheme, no doubt Mr Asquith thinks-it wise to .-go : slow at the start. And in the initiation of a new order of things, so greatly in ad- ■ vance of; anything hitherto attempti ed in great Britain, it is perhaps as well to err—if at all—upon the aide of caution.