The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1898. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume VI, Issue 708, 12 October 1898, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1898. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

The Old Age Pensions Bill has passed its third reading in the House of Bepreseutatives, and has now to face the “ Lords ” for their approval before it becomes law. We confess we are not enamoured of the measure, even after the wholesale amendments made in the original draft. Its title is a misnomer, for it is not an old age pensions bill, nor a pension bill of any kind, seeing that the weekly dole is paid only to those in receipt of less than the sum of £34 per year, and only to the few of this particular section who are able to fulfil certain conditions. Nor can that be called a pension which has about it no element of certainty cr permanence. The measure as passed by the House only holds good for three years and is therefore purely tentative. An accurate definition would be “ The Extension of Charitable Aid Bill.” At present it is proposed to take the £200,000 per annum which it is calculated will be required to carry out the Act from

ordinary revenue, wrung indiscriminately from a general public scandalously over-burdened with excessive Customs taxation. Only an infinitesimally small proportion of these contributories can everexpect or hope to become recipients of pensions; but they have to pay tlieir quota notwithstanding, bhould ordinary revenue prove unequal to the strain put upon it the amount required will be raised by a graduated land-tax. Our farmers can therefore face the glorious possibility of being taxed to maintain the thriftless aged indigent of the cities. As a matter of fact, the scheme is wholly in the interests of the cities and will relieve them in a great measure of the necessity for distributing charitable aid, towards which even at present the country districts have to contribute large sums annually. Bui, these sums come out of the revenues of the local bodies, and is not suoh an impost as an additional special tax would be. The New Zealander is rapidly becoming overburdened with taxes and duties and every additional burden makes his life harder. A contemporary epitomises the demerits of the Bill, which, it says, “can best be described as a charitable assistance to the amount of six shillings aud eleven pence a week to highly moral indigent persons who have lived twenty-five years in the colony. Before getting this munificent allowance, the applicant has to prove that he or she has not been in gaol for four months, or on four occasions for twelve years, has not deserted wife nor husband for six months, is of good moral character, and has for five years lived a sober and respectable life. For every pound the pensioner earns over £B4 a year, or any allowance for board and lodging, a similar amount is deducted from the pension, and a certain amount for all property owned over £SO in value. After a person gets a pension the pitfalls to a continuance of the dole are innumerable. For instance, the amount of charitable aid received is deducted ; if any pensionet is convicted of drunkenness, or of any offence dishonoring him in the public estimation, misspends, wastes, or lessens his estate, greatly injures liis health, endangers or interrupts the peace and happiness of his family, certain instalments or the whole pension may be forfeited. Maoris may receive pensions but not Chinese or other Asiatics. It will be seen that there is full justification for the statement that a person will have to be a saint to obtain a pension, and a hypocrite or a good deal more than a saint to keep it-” If this is the Bill that Mr Seddoij is manoiuvring to get thrown out so that he may obtain a dissolution and go to the country upon it, we cannot admire liis judgment. Even if such a measure wore required, which we doubt, that passed by tho House of Bepresentatives is a wretched botch which could only pauperise without alleviating poverty.