THE OLD AGE PENSIONS BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10628, 17 December 1897, Page 4

THE OLD AGE PENSIONS BILL.

The Old Age Pensions Bill has received its quietus for the present session at least. The Legislative Council, by 20 votes to 15, threw it out on the motion for the second reading. This result was not unexpected. Probably the Government regard it as not wholly unwelcome. Had the Council passed it, Ministers would have found themselves saddled with an ouerous and embarrassing responsibility, and the country with a, financial obligation that would have proved before long an intolerable incubus. The Bill was a crude and ill-digested measure, and was evidently only introduced in fulfilment of electioneering promises, and witli no earnest intention of its becoming law. It was only the knowledge of the certainty of the Council doinsf what it has done that prevented it meeting its fate in the House of Representatives. There is no doubt a large residuum in the colony, more particularly in the chief centres of population, to whom a measure of this kind is peculiarly attractive, and whose votes have to be reckoned with at election times. Thi« probably accounts for the attitude of members in regard to the Bill. They preferred to leave to the Council, whose serenity is undisturbed by visions of the ballot-box, the duty of giving the Bill the happy dispatch. The measure, however, has only been put aside for the present session. It will make its reappearance aguin next year. The question of old age pensions has to be solved. It has come within the sphere of practical politics, and will require to be grappled with by earnest statesmanship. It is a question fraught with difficulties, but it ought uot to be beyond the wit of man to deal with it in a practical and satisfactory manner. It cannot be pretended that the Bill brought in by the Government did this, and the Council were, therefore, justified in rejecting it.