HARD LINES.

NZ Truth, Issue 869, 22 July 1922, Page 12

HARD LINES.

'Dear "Truth,"-f-I haVe applied vot ah old age pensibn.fbr myself and myjwife. It appears that our case Us somewhat exceptional.* Mr. Miller, .Commissioner of -Pensions * m this town, (Wa,ngaftui) tejls me tfoat^we; as trfe-1 Pension Act .stands, twill,- not ( get the ] pension for . about 5 or, 6 years yet owing- to beftig absent from the ' Dominio n! ,fdr 6 yeaVs lief ore we had completed 25 years' corir •tinuous.residenc'e"in-the : Dominion. Of course if, under -no circumstances, such as '■ ours,,f or'; instance, ithe; law must. ...be „ ,kep,t "to "the 'letter',- -then, we must^grin -! ahd v bear it. Wercaihe to the' Dominion In 1890 ;_ I. gotLabiUetaa., engine-driver at the Atlas Flour Mills, owned by Wm. Evans >ana~eo:;*-TimaruV: : The,y ;*yera . luting considerable' trouble with' their steam engine, so much so that, I waa told, . they (were contemplating getting a new one. Tne had been* m evidence if rom 'the start.' Within a year I gotrid; of most of the troubled and m 10 years I left, to go Home te -see'- a daughter iwho had lost her husband arid swho was not ! m the : best of : circumstarices.; It took !most of our. savings to get usto England.!. Then it.,tbok<uJs six -years to get enough to bring us back. (We .have been back 16 ■■ years. When we returned the Christchurch Exhibition .was built, and I got a . billet as one of the -?cello players m. the orr: chestra. When that iwas over, in-' May, 1307/ I got & (billet . as . engineer arid general mechanic at fch& Timaru Hbs r pital "laundry, which 1 had. -just been . built. I was jthere,hihe* years, till \ 1916, when.theyl pulled out! 'the steam-engine, for the running, of which I .was mainly engaged; Then I -was .-dismissed,' '-. as they! no? longer •Required an engine driver, , as-^ anybody, : :-,theJ ; girls ;iri v the laundry for instance,. could start br. stop the eleoric ' motor, as they thought. That it "has nbt-.turned out so iwell.as they expected"-- lias nothing to do with this story. When I left (the Atlas Mills m 1900, one of my boys took my place, and the steam engine has been running for' over' 30"years and giving practically no trouble at all, arid at a'-weekly saving/1 ahr satisfied, -:'ithat would pay our old ago pension.,. That surely is a ben-. efit' ; to , the J>Ominibn. Then, as 'tbcth't* HospitaUbusincss^l am sure that the Boai'd'is 'spending riiore money, 'because of my dismissal, rather than., less,>as they expected! As Ito the Act^of Parliament 'which^de'prives an old man_of Els pension because* he goes from one part, -of ..the. Empire to, another, even under circuiri'stances "beyond his control, { is;} icarry ing economy tb unfair "lengths, surely ! ,it seems .time ; that pensions' given m any part of the Empire should not be lost if one visited, another part if he returned to the place-, iwhere the pension was originally given. Pensibns.'cto be* just; should be. granted iby •' the/ Empire. Our .'; rulers .', speak grandiloquently of the unity of the Empire, but when it comes to making laws for the, benefit /of a class that bars- the .beneficiary from- other parts of the Eihpire it seems, a poor .method of promoting unity among imperialistic peoples.! r .;jI t ,be!ieve, Sir, .that Mr. James Csaigie, who has known me for thirty years,, will,, corroborate all I have writ- • j ten^Ypurs!;-et^, v . ':^- s - ii .- i _ # L; r . •■-' i i" juiy b; iiwfe. " * ■.•"■■■*■" ""• ;'■■"" ; i