COST OF PENSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1925, Page 9

COST OF PENSIONS.

TOTAL OF TWO MULLION. DETAILS OF PAYMENTS. PLEA FOR EXTENSIONS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night, The annual report of the Pensions Department shows that the cost of pensions per head of the population amounts to £1 16s 4d, a shilling per head less than last year. The gross payments for the year were) War £1,244,483, old-age £706,053, widows £236,378, Maori War £26,848, miners £38,506, epidemic £22,881, Boer War £3071, sundry pensions and annuities £9327, Civil Service Act, 1908, £19,115, blind £103o; total, £2,408,598. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. T. M. Wilford) complained of a want of uniformity in our system, and if the Minister could do anything to smooth out this lack of uniformity he would be doing a great deal towards making our pension system less difficult and more efficient. There was no reason why one woman should receive a larger sum than another just because she came under some other statute. A pension should be paid because of necessity, and not because it happened to come under a particular statute. He favoured greater powers of reciprocity throughout the Empire, and he wanted to see magistrates given greater powers of discretion and not tied down to the strict wording of the Act so that a greater measure of justice could be done in cases of extreme hardship. Mr. A. Harris (Waitemata) urged greater generosity, in the treatment of soldiers, particularly men afflicted with T.B. and V.D. If these men eould not be assisted out of the pension fund could they not be helped out of the canteen and patriotic funds? The Leader of the. Labour Party (Mr. H. E. Holland) complained that the additional 2s fid granted last year could not be paid to all old-age pensioners just because they owned some small amount of property or because of some other) trifling disability. This extra payment should be paid to all classes of pensioners. Pensions for the blind should also be liberalised, and anomalies should be removed from widows’ pension. A number of speakers discussed the report, each advocating some extension of the pensions system. The Minister, in reply, said that last year he wanted to bring about uniformity in the system, but the House would not allow him because that meant reducing some persons’ allowances. He hoped this session to put before theHouse some principles which would improve the system, so that they might be discussed. He eulogised the work done by the Secretary for Pensions, who put in a great amount of labour and sympathy in the interests of pensioners. It had been said that there ought to be more discretion given to the administration of the law. There was no one to whom he would rather give discretion than to the Secretary for Pensions, but he was sure that gentleman would not have it, and magistrates did not want it. The proper way was for the House to lay down principles for officers to carry out, otherwise there would be too many cases of the heart running away with the head. So far as reciprocity was concerned, the Minister said Australia had not responded to New Zealand’s efforts. Sb far as the Old Country was concerned, he would have nothing .to do with reciprocity unless the Old Country agreed to the pension of their own people, otherwise New Zealand would simply be flooded with their pensioners because we paid a higher pension than they did. He was considering the question of a blind person who was not born in New Zealand, but .who had lived in New Zealand for 25 years being entitled to a pension. The report was tabled.