THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1908. GROSS INJUSTICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9045, 3 February 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1908. GROSS INJUSTICE.

There is, at} times, nothing quite so unjust as the justice of the law, and the truth of the contention is being continually illustrated by the manner in which the Old Age Pensions Act is working. Quite recently, at Auckland, an old army veteran, eighty-two years of age, took one glass of beer and dozed off to sleep in a public place. He was deprived, as a punishment for his heinous crime, of his pension for five years. Should he live for another five years he has, as a matter of fact, been practically fined £135! Now, it must bo obvious to the most uncharitable of individuals that a man eighty-two years of age is probably liable to go to sleep at any time; but assuming that the wretched crumb of solace that the poor old veteran, for once off his guard, allowed himself resulted in his becoming partially intoxicated, is the long unblemished record of his life, the fact that he has risked his life in the service of the Epmire, and the fur-

ther fact that he has been a faithful servant of this Dominion for many years to count for nothing? Indeed, it is so. All the meritorious services which we have mentioned count for nothing. The poverty-stricken old veteran, whose character was unblemished, was deprived of his pension, and it seems that the sentence of the Court was quite in accordance with the Act. And who is there that does not know of similar cases? The Old Age Pensions Act requires amending, and that urgently. Discretionary power of considerable extent should be given to Magistrates in the matter of either granting or discontinuing old age pensions.