THE LATE SPEAKERS PENSION

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1777, 11 June 1895, Page 4

THE LATE SPEAKERS PENSION

On April 23rd the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved m the House of Commons, i— " That the annual sum of £4000 net be granted to Her Majesty out of the Consolided Fund of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the said annuity to commence and take effect upon the day upon which the Right Hon. j Arthur Wellesley Peel, late Speaker of the House of Commons, ceased to hold \ the Office of Speaker of the House of Commons, to be settled m the most beneficial manner upon, and to continue during the life of, him the said Right Hon. Arthur Wellesley Peel;" ; Mr Keir Hardie : I rise to move that the sum of £4000 be deleted, and £1000 inserted m line 1 of the motion. It seems I to me, Mr Speaker, that when the House of Commons neither has the time nor information to provide a system of pensions for the aged workers of the country i that it shouid not be called upon to agree to a resolution of this kind. May Ibe allowed to say, Sir, that I make this motion out of no feeling of disrespect to the recent occupant of the chair, and that I endorse all that was said on both sides of the House on the occasion of his retirement, but as I have already stated, when there are such glaring anomalies between wealth and poverty m the country, and when we have as we had less than two years ago a worker, a servant of Her Majesty for close on thirty years, driven to commit suicide m his old age because no pensions are made m cases of this kind, it seems to me inevitable that some protest should be made : against a resolution of this kind. I will not enter into the general question of pensions, but content myself with moving the amendment. The Chancellor declined to discuss the amendment. The Chairman put the motion and Mr Hardies voice being the only one against it, declared it carried. Mr Hardie, however, insisted on a division, but could get no other •' teller," and he asked that one of the clerks be appointed, but this was not done, and the division could not be taken. The motion was declared carried on the voices.

The Prince of Wales lias abundance -of military attire. He can wear by right., the uniforms of the. Ist and 2nd Life Guards arid the Blues, the 10th ijussars, the 6th and 11th Bengal Cavalry, the 2nd Bengal Infantry, the, 2nd Goorkhas, the Punjab Guides, the Madras Sappers and Miners, the 3rd Bombay Cavalry, 'the' 2nd ■Bombay' Infcmtry, tUe. ; Duke'ot Cornwall's Light Infantry, t)ie. Honourable Artillery Company, of London, the Oxford and the Cambridge University Volunteers, the Eoyal Aberdeenshire Highlanders, the Civil Service Rifles, the Sutherland Volunteers, and the. Rifle Brigade, of which he was lately Colonel. Lastly of the British military uniforms which he may wear is the greatest of all— that of Field-Marshal.