3

H.—lB

Number of pensions at 31st August, 1905 .. .. .. 11,830 Add new grants during September .. .. 201 Deduct deaths during September .. .. 97 ~ cancellations during September .. .. 19 116 85 increase. Number of pensions at 30th September, 1905 .. .. .. 11,915 Add new grants during October .. .. .. 210 Deduct deaths during October .. .. 84 ~ cancellations during October .. .. 18 102 108 increase. Number of pensions at 31st October, 1905 .. .. .. 12,023 Add new grants during November .. .. 178 Deduct deaths during November .. .. 75 ~ cancellations during November .. .. 13 88 90 increase. Number of pensions at 30th November, 1905 .. .. .. 12,113 Add new grants during December .. .. 196 Deduct deaths during December .. .. 84 „ cancellations during December .. .. 11 95 101 increase. Number of pensions at 31st December, 1905 .. .. .. 12,214 Add new grants during January, 1906 .. .. 224 Deduct deaths during January .. .. 96 „ cancellations during January .. .. 11 107 117 increase. Number of pensions at 31st January, 1906 .. .. .. 12,331 Add new grants during February .. .. 218 Deduct deaths during Feburary .. .. 51 „ cancellation during February .. .. 18 - 69 149 increase. Number of pensions at 28th February, 1906 .. .. .. 12,480 Add new grants during March .. .. .. 231 Deduct deaths during March .. .. .. 108 „ cancellations during March .. .. 21 129 102 increase. Number of pensions at 31st March, 1906 .. .. 12,582 Total increase for year, 812. ; New Claims. The number of new claims made throughout the colony during the year was 3,027, being 1,344 in excess of the 1,683 received in the previous year. These, with the 528 outstanding at the beginning of the year, made a total of 3,555 to be dealt with. Of this number, 2,073 were established, 590 were rejected, while there were on hand awaiting investigation at the end of the year 892. The incoming pensioners for the past year, therefore, exceed the 1,210 admitted in the previous year by 863. Although this increase is numerically a large one, the percentage of these new participants to the people who became eligible remains practically the same as last year, the percentage for the two years being 34 in 1905, and 35 in 1906. Eeference to the last available census figures shows that there were in 1901 approximately 5,900 people who were then 60 years of age and over, and twenty years and over in the colony ; and it was from the ranks of these that the 2,073 new pensioners for the past year have been drawn, as against the 3,500 (approximately) who supplied the new pensioners in the previous year. A factor which is to be considered as having some bearing on the increase which now must be looked for each year is the gradual wearing-away of the disinclination on the part of a number of people to apply for the old-age pension. There is abundant evidence that the pension is regarded almost universally in the light that the framer of the Act intended it should be—namely, as a right; and, further, people who did not consider the £18 was worth applying for are now finding that £26 is a very useful sum to be possessed of in their declining years.