THE FIRST PAY DAY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12474, 26 February 1909, Page 4

THE FIRST PAY DAY.

Remarkable scenes were witnessed .it the post offices throughout England, Wales, and -Ireland, when the ■irst State old age pensions were paid/ Altogether there are about 500,000 pensioners. In London (states an I oxchange)— and especially in the East 3nd— there was a. steady stream of claimants, whose gratitude in one or swo instances took the form of offer- I ing presents to the sympathetic and'! iiard working post office officials. In several cases -the joy of the aged recipients was, so great that the - -ex- j ■jitement was too much for them and they died before the day was out. In Oublin the many claimants had to be marshalled in a queue. In another part of Ireland the old women jould scarcely be persuaded that taking the money would not enlist theii 1 . ions in the Army! . In many towns pensioners, were .vaiting on Friday for tho post office I -o open their doors in order to claim j dieir pensions, and incidents both ; I lumorous and. pathetic were numerous. There are cases ill which applicants had been several times to the post office before January Ist in order to draw the pension in advance and there are instances where " old i ladies displayed anxiety lest the ; .noney should run out before '-their'! turn came for payment. At Brain- j bree a brass band paraded the town i playing "Hail, smiling morn!" As all the pensioners, belong to the preBoard School era the number of illiterates among them was very considerable, and these had to obtain witnesses before the necessary payments could be made to them. It has been ascertained that some pensioners in the East End of London .have been /borrowing money against the security, of their pension The Treasury had anticipated that some such practice might grow up, and' accordingly there is a 'printed notice on the pension orders, that they are not transferable, and are no security whatever for debt. An--other notice set out that the orders are of no value whatever except to the pensioner. Orders may not be, . torn, from the books except as required, each week, and moreover, the books themselves are the property of the Government, and must be delivered to any pension officer when ipquired. ' If, therefore,- a moneylender has taken, a pensioner's book as security for debt, the book ca.n he recovered.