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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 70, 9 August 1912, Page 4

CONCERNING PENSIONS. The proposal embodied in tho Financial Statement to reduce the age at which our needy womenkind will qualify for a pension from 05 years to 60 years is one that is sure to meet with support from all sides of the House. It is a reform that should have come into operation years ago. It is estimated that under •' the new scheme relief will be granted, to 10,300 distressed women, and this will mean an addition to the pension expenditure annually of roughly a quarter of a million. Even at the cost of additional taxation the country should unhesitatingly provide this money. Tn a civilised community a woman at 60 years of age should be regarded as past work, and as ample provision is made 'that only those who have borne the burden and heat of the day and are in indigent circumstances shall participate in; the distribution of pensions, the country should not grudge the few shillings aweek which it is proposed to pay to those" in need of it. We are not an ungenerous people, as the periodical anpeals -for the Fresh Air Fund and hospital funds amply testify, but we ire disponed t<; be. n. .trifle thmigMless '.where our o.wi old folks are concerned. People will readily put their hands in their pockets to'relieve cases of individual necessity, but, pqyerty is-proverbially proud, and there are hundreds of cases in thi eouiilrv' where women w'l" have hdfd to build the nation by years of unremitting toil prefer to suffer in silence rather than appeal to charity. Their pensions shou'/l not be regarded as a charity, but as a payment for work done. Even- our' fri-ends in the hackblocks, we are sure, will be content to accept a little longersome of their disabilities if the sacrifice means a little comfort for the declining years of the mother's mothers of those, less fortunate than themselves.