OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 213, 23 November 1897, Page 2

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

REPORT OF THE VICTORIAN COMMISSION. Melbourne, November 20. The draft report of the Old Age Pensions Commission will '*e presented at their next sitting. It is a very voluminous document. It states that the estimated number of persons of the age 'of sixty and over is 133,336, of whom about 10,COO are in poor circumstances and in need of relief. It is calculated that if a pension of 10j a week were granted to eich person of b'O years and upwards, £'2,169,000 annually would be required ; if limited to those of sixty-five and upward.--, the sum required would be £1,'297,C00. The report recommends that assistance should be limited to those who have reached the age of sixty ; that they be divided into two classes — Firstly, the deserving poor, comprising those who have lived in the colony the last ten years immediately preceding the application, and made reasonable sfforts to provide for themselves, or brought up their families respectably, this class to receive a maximum pension of 10s per week and 15s for married couples ; the second class to comprise those who have not been resident in the colony the requisite number of years, those mentally or physically unfitted to take care of themselves, and those who have made no effort to provide for themselves or are unfitted to he trusted with the expenditure of money assistance. Those belonging to _ the second class are to be cared for in a State-supervised institution. The probable number of pensioners of both classes is set down at 5300, and the cost of maintenance at £59,700 annually. The sources of revenue suggested are a tax upon all earnings and gains from 10* a week up to £.'loo a-year, which, however, the committee do not recommend, owing to the present high income tax ; a tax of a |d in the £ upon the unimproved value of land which they recommend and consider would be sufficient to moie than cover the whole amount required for pensions. The nationalisation of pawnshops, a tax on house rents, and the legalisation of the totalisator are also submitted as sources of revenue. The committee are also in favour of setting aside land in the vicinity of large centres of population for the erection of inexpensive homes, where wom-ont turners and other vigorous old people may employ themselves. The committee oppose specially penalising the liquor traflic and charities as already heavily taxed, and are also opposed to the proposal to tax sports and amusements. The report embraces suggestions for the establishment of a syst-m of State life assurance as an aid to thrift.