OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2434, 6 December 1892, Page 4

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

At the last meeting of the Canterbury Liberal Association a paper on the subject of old age pensions was read by Mr A. Joyce. In the course of a very interesting essay Mr Joyce said:—The only practicable way to provide peusions in old age, appears to me to be by means of a fund to which all should contribute by means of Bpecial duties on articles of general consumption, supplemented by a rate levied on rateable property to be raised by the Municipal, County,orjHoad Board authorities. By means of the special duties everyone would contribute, and the rate levied upon property would be a just contribution from the propertied classes, for there can be no question that it is the unequal distribution of wealth which is the source of old age poverty, and those who by the operation of unjust laws have been enabled to acquire valuable tracts of land should contribute their just quota to the pension fund. The great advantage of this system is that it may be commenced at once There is no necessity to wait twenty or thirty year 3 for the inauguration of the pension system ; it might be commenced any time, and wmld be an immense relief to society generally, and a blessing to a large and unfortunate section of the community. To come i o statistics. By the census of, . IB9i, $m WW fa tIW W>lvwiy 12,0q0

personß of 60 to 65 years of age 6467 persons of 65 to 70 years of age, 7851 persons over 70 years of age. I should propose to begin the pension scheme at once by paying a pension of £1 per week to each person of over 70 years of age who had been twenty years in the Colony. The published census returns do not give the date of arrivals in the colony, but I think we might assume that four-fiths of those over 70 have been twenty years in the Colony. This would require us to provide pensions for 6281 people or a capital sum of £326,612. This amount I should propose to raise by means of doublie duties on tea, sugar and coffee, and a 10 per cent ad valorem duty on cotton goods, moleskins, and corduroy. This would realise a revenue of £216,000. The rateable property of the Colony assessed on capital value amounts to £66,031,2081, and the rateable property assessed on annual value to £2,122,938. I should propose a tax of Jd in the £ on the first, and of 3d in the £ on the last assessment. This would realise £95,000, leaving about £16,000 to be contributed by the consolidated fund or raised by some other special fnnd. The second year the pensions should be granted to persons over 69 years of age, with the provision that they should have resided 20 years in the Colony. The third year the pensions would be payable at 68, and so on, decreasing one year each year until the age of 60 was reached, which would then be fixed as the pension age. Of course the taxation for the purpose would have to be increased from time to time, but the payment would be collected in the easiest way possible, there would be no individual account books, and the contribution would be made by each person in proportion to his expenditure upon articles of general consumption. It would relieve the local and general funds of a very large proportion of the expenditure upon charitable aid; it would raise our old folk from a state of dependance to one of comparative comfort, while at the same time it would remove the stigma of pauperism, as each would receive his or her payment as a contribution of the State fairly earned by those who had helped to build up the colony. This pension would be paid to everyone in the Colony of the age required, who had been twenty years in the Colony. The man with his income of thousands would receive it as well as the man who was entirely dependent upon it. It would be on the lines of true Socialism, so far as it went, and would pave the way for further steps in the same direction.