The Daily News MONDAY, OCTOBER 15. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81865, 15 October 1906, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, OCTOBER 15. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

The annual icport oi ilie old age pensions department is an interesting production. It shows that the inciease of the pension to ,£26 had the immediate effect ut increasing the number of pariicip..iUs and of en larging- the expenditure. On March 3is> the number of pensioners on the roll stood at 12,582, being- 812 more than at the close of the previous year, and 104 less, than on March 31 si, 1902. Of these pensioners 6(17 were Maoris. Eighty-two per cent (io,3gS) of the pensioners on the roll are in receipt of the full pension. Of the four chief centres of population, Christchurch has, as mentioned recently, the highest number of pensioners, namely, 1440, as against 1210 in Auckland, 1111 in Dunedin. and 5y6 in Wellington. Tho smallncss of the pension roll is accounted for by the fact that the population at the pension age in that centre is a comparatively small one, the last available census figures showing the people sixty-five years of age and over in each of the chief centres to be as follows:

Christchurch' 3408 Auckland 3002 Dunedin 2901 Wellington 1771 The male pensioners exceed the female pensioners by ioyo, although in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin the females are in the ascendant. The age which claims the highest number of pensioners is 72, 11OS Europeans being at that age. Age 73 follows next with 1112. There are 70 European pensioners of the age of yo and over, while three are centenarians "A factor which is to b-> considered as having some bearing on the increase, winch must now b; looked for each year,'' says the tcpoii, "is the gradual wearing away of the disinclination on the part of a number of people io apply for the old age pension. There is abundant evidence that the pension is regaided almost universally in the light the framer of the Act intended it should be namely, as a right, and further, people who did noi consider the x,iti worth applying for are now finding that £26 is a very useful thing to be possessed of in their declining years.'' During the year, 2073 new claims for pensions were established. The amount paid by way of pensions during the year was .£254,367. The following 1 able shows the annual amount paid in pensions since the passing of the Act: *iB(JO ! 'i 2 4

njuo 157-34-njoi 107,292 iyo2 207,40s ICJO3 210,140 1904 203.164 ")C's HJ5.47S 1006 254,367

* For three months only.

The cost per head of population ; n HJOS was 4,6; last year it was 5/8. The overpayments recovered since the Act came into force amount to /£55.)K' The cost ( f administration last year was X-475 N ' in the previous year £yrfi. The uo-ccntage of the iota! cost of admini-uring the gross payments of is 1.67 per ccn.t.