SIR JOAN FORREST'S PENSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10006, 31 March 1910, Page 4

SIR JOAN FORREST'S PENSION.

A candidate who passes through [the ordeal of a contested election usually has few secrets left'for the Day of Judgment Sir John Forrest, the Federal Treasurer, has "battled through many a hustings campaign, and still held something back, but he met his Waterloo the other day in Perth, says the "Sydney Daily Telegraph," and was obliged to make a clean breast of *'that little pension matter" It appears that when responsible government was granted to Western Australia, certain executive officers were compensated for the loss of their positions, The Colonial Secretary, Sir Malcolm Fraser, received a pension of £750, the Treasurer, Mr Lefroy, got £650, and Sir John Forrest himself received £SOO. This happened nineteen years ago. But while the two first-named gentlemen drew their pensions regularly, Sir John—and this is where he turned the table on his questioner—refrained from claiming a penny of his as long as he held office under the Crown, whether as Premier of West Australia or as a member of the Commonwealth' Government. When out of office for about two and a half years he did draw the pension, but all he Had received in nineteen years was £1,200, though he was entitled to draw about £9,500. He had presented the other £8,300 to the country.