OLD AGE TENSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10970, 26 January 1899, Page 3

OLD AGE TENSIONS.

TO THE I'.DITOI'.. ! Sir.— loader in your paper lately pei I expression to a statement to winch a larg.I number of persons take exception. It says ! that the pension as now applied is not chanty, I lint is on the same lines as a soldiers pen- ! rion for services rendered. A statement like i this coming from the editor of such a highly I and deservedly reputable paper, is sure to bo ! accepted by a large number of the less-think-I ing part of its readers. An old soldier exDressed the same opinion to mo. In the first 1 place, a pension is really part of a soldier i pay, as he enlists with the promise of a retiring allowance or pension after so many years' service, and it is not in any way do i pendent on his means, or the emptiness or I fulness of his purse. I have cqua ly served !my adopted country both in fighting its 'battles and reclaiming its waste lands; yes, i much more than many of tbo claimants; ye ! because I have been industrious, careful, and i thrifty, and put by enough for my old age, ', I am debarred from claiming the pension, it I being given only to those in poverty. "«« ! is this but charity, and it ought to.be so -.onisidered. Another thing to be considered 'is it in a great measure will cause many I children to neglect then boundon duty-tna of looking after the welfare •nd. comfort ? ' their parents. The present Act will no doubt ; have a demoralising effect on the recipients ' and their relatives. , ! 1 believe in an old age pension, but those ! who receive it should eontributc-it need not Ibe a compulsory contribution. lint if only those who were making a provision for old 1 nee had the franchise it would make people ! much more thrifty, and how much better ! and purer would be cm legislation! Ido i not fancy wo shall find our charitable aid i rate much lightened.—l am, etc., K. I Trovenuon, January 20, 1899. [The framers of the Old Age Pensions Act' ' always repudiated the idea that it was a charitable payment If it were merely chanty, ' then it should be administered through the : present machinery. The objections which our i correspondent takes are quite just, but that I is owing to the faulty basis on which this I whole Act rests.—