BENEFIT ALL

Waikato Times, Volume 120, Issue 19984, 7 September 1936, Page 7

BENEFIT ALL

SUPERANNUATION PLAN

COMPULSORY CONTRIBUTION. LEGISLATION NEXT YEAR. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Monday. *'A Bill to provide superannuation for everybody will be brought down next session,” the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Public Works, said In an interview to-day. ‘‘The scheme will be a form of Industrial Insurance for everybody and compulsory, everyone sharing by right. “It will do away forever with the terrible fear of those getting on in years or in ill-health that the rainbow years of life will be clouded with dread, poverty and pauperism,” he said. “It is going to be a national institution, something that has never been attempted in any country like this and shared by everybody, rich and poor."

Mr Semple added that the scheme, which would do away with a lot of charitable institutions, would be based on contribution, something after the style of the Unemployment Tax, everyone contributing and everyone benefiting by the contributions, which would be subsidised out of the Consolidated Fund. When they reached the age limit or were laid aside through sickness all citizens would be able to claim superannuation. There would have to be safeguards, such as preventing people flocking into the country to secure protection under the scheme, which was designed as a reward to those who had given years of faithful service to the Dominion. Care would be taken to see that other superannuation schemes were not harmed.