The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 332, 25 August 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1898.

We were informed by a telegram some time back that the Committee set up in England to report upon the Old Age Pension schemes, submitted for their consideration, were unable to recommend the adoption of any of them. The English papers containing full digests of the report are now to hand, and we find that the Committee, has in addition, stated that they were incapable of formulating an acceptable scheme themselves, notwithstanding that they had no less than one hundred proposals before them. These schemes the Committee classified as follows : 1. Schemes involving compulsory contribution towards a pension fund, either by way of the German method of deduction by employers from wages paid by them, assisted by a contribution levied from the employers, or by way of an annual, or a lump, payment made by all young persons before a certain age, and accumulated at compound interest until the pension age. 2. Schemes providing a universal grant of pensions to all persons upon attaining a certain age, without requiring from them any direct contribution, or examining their merits and their needs. Various modifications were suggested, chiefly with the object of fixing the income above which there should be no grant. 3. Schemes providing special facilities and encouragement to voluntary insurance against old age, with material assistance from the State.

4. Schemes providing State aid towards old age pensions for members of Friendly Societies only. Some of these proposed that members of Friendly Societies, as such, should, on arrival at a certain age, receive pensions from the public hinds. Others proposed that pensioners should receive part of their pensions from their Society and the rest from public funds.

Groups 1 and 2 were excluded from consideration, on the grounds that the terms of reference excluded any scheme based on compulsion. There is only one proposal that the State should grant pensions to every man who attains to the age of 65 ; all the others involve saving in some form before a pension shall be payable. The universal scheme was condemned on the grounds that the cost would be too great, and thus it would, in place of being an incentive to thrift, be the exact reverse.

The Old Age Pension Bill of Mr Seddon goes further in the direction of discouraging thrift than would be the granting of a pension to all on attaining the age of G 5. The proposal in the Bill is that every person of G 5 years of age shall be entitled to a pension of £lB per annum, provided he is not possessed of an income of £52 a year, and that the net accumulated value of property does not amount to, or exceed, £540. The amount of pension to be diminished by £1 for every complete pound of income above £34 ; also by one pound for every complete £3O of the net capital value of all accumulated property. A man under this scheme would be born to a pension. Let his life have been what it may—good, bad, or indifferent, wise or foolish, saving or prodigal—he has only to live long enough to draw his annuity in old'age. It is true that then; is the proviso that he is of good moral character and is leading a sober and reputable life. When a man reaches the age of 65, unless of the. lower grade of the criminal class, he is generally of good moral character, and, if he really requires the pension, is sober, because he cannot get drink ; there is, of course, the public-house loafer, who is the exception to the rule. The men who have condemned a similar scheme to the Premier's are

amongst the aiost competent in England te form an opinion. The application of a principle is calculated to bring about similar results, whether the scene of action be iho Northern or Southern Hemisphere. "We fear that a practical scheme calculated to give good results has not yet been formulated. That of Mr Seddon cannot he accepted as such. It is with great regret that we

are compelled to express this opinion. We will give the palm to no man for wishing sincerely that every honest poor man might count with confidence on an old age free from the degrading chance of being supported by a Charitable Aid Board. Unhappily, however, the more closely one investigates the subject the more one becomes convinced that no scheme has yet been proposed that will have this result without bringing with it a chain of evils which should forbid any statesman from adopting it.