CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13782, 22 June 1908, Page 8

CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONERS.

Sir,—There is no generosity on the part, of the Government in granting pensions. It is simply in _ fulfilment, of a contract, and a Civil Service pensioner should be as free to do as he likes as any man in the Dominion, and as pensions cease when _ the pensioner dies it is the duty of all Civil Service pensioners to try to make provision now for those dependent on them. To state that an ex-Civil servant drawing a pension of £200 a year or more should not embark in private business is to interfere unnecessarily with the liberty of the community, and it means a limit, and a ridiculously small one, being put to the 'income of an individual or to tho provision to bo made for those dependent on him. It is a well-known fact that Civil servants do not receive such salaries as enable them to make provision for their families. It may bo that the pensions provide a livelihood while the pensioners live, but as everyone is in duty bound to make some provision for those dependent upon him there can be no reasonable objection to a Civil Service pensioner competing with others in business. To show the need for making such provision it may be stated that when an officer in active service dies, under the Act of 1866 his widow and family are granted compassionate allowance equal to salary for two years, whereas when a pensioner dies, though he may have drawn pension for a few months only, his widow and family are not legally entitled to anything. When the services of an officer are dispensed with through no fault of his own, and before he has served the full time for a pension, under the Act of 1866 he receives compensation for loss of office at the rate of a month's salary for every year of service. It is evident, that the Legislature recognised the hardship to the wife and family of a pensioner under this Act, as under the Act of last year if a pensioner dies before lie nas drawn as pension the full compensation his widow and family are paid the difference between the'amount of pension drawn and the compensation for loss of office, besides the widow receives a small pension till she remarries, and an allowance is made to each child till he or she attains a certain age. ft is thus evident that the Legislature thought sufficient provision was not made for those dependent on pensioners under the older Act. Justice.

In a long communication which Miss H. F. Powell, " socialist organiser,'" has favoured us with, she writes:—"The lesson of my tour is pronounced and emphatic, namely, that nothing short of a socialist party, with an honest name and objective and a courageous clear-cut programme aiming at big things, and void of petty details, can ever secure the permanent welfare of the masses of New Zealand. Labour, like unionism, in this country, is played out. They have each done their work. Their work was only elementary, i.e., contribution towards the practical education of the people. That end beine achieved, worthier tasks demand attention."