OLD AGE PENSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12279, 25 May 1903, Page 5

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

DEBATE IN IMPERIAL

PARLIAMENT.

BILL READ A SECOND TIME.

SIGNIFICANT SPEECH BY MR.

CHAMBERLAIN.

By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright.

(Received May 24, 5 p.m.)

London, May 23. The Old Aged Pensioners Bill, proposing an age limit of 65, with a pension of 5s a week, provided partly from the rates and partly from the Treasury at an estimated cost of six and a-half millions, was read a second time.

Mr. Chamberlain, in referring to the history of the movement, agreed that it was possible to do something to stimulate thrift, to help make provision for old age. The question Was complicated and the obstacles were great, but not insuperable. It was not impossible to find funds. For that no doubt there "would have to be that review of the fiscal system he had indicated as necessary and desirable at an early date. (Cheers).

Mr. Long, President of the Local Government Board, admitted that the Bill was an improvement on previous ones, but more precise information was required. Commenting oh Mi*. J. F. Remnant's Bill, Mr. Long, recalling demand for remission of taxation, said he doubted whether a, pjwposal necessitating large expenditure would be acceptable to the nation. The only way to raise the money would be to proceed with a revision of the fiscal system.

The Bill was referred to a Select Committee.

Mr. Chamberlain's remarks have created a sensation in Westminster. They are interpreted as indicating that lie intends pushing his fiscal revision proposals, believing that the workers would support duties on foreign products if the money is devoted to old age pensions.

Mr. Long urged that the real difficulty was not the principle of pensions, but the financial foundations, without which the pensions proposals were impracticable.