The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 343, 20 September 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1898.

The Old Age Pensions Bill has passed the second reading in the House of Representatives. It has now to run the gauntlet in committee and be dealt with by the Council. Parliament and the country are unanimous that provision should be made for the aged who have failed in the battle of life. It is, however, contended on the one hand that a pension should be conditional on the recipient having made an effort to make provision for himself during his youth and middle age. On the other it is urged that every man |

who reaches the age of Go shall receive a pension. The Bill before the House is based on the latter proposition, and provides that a pension of £lB per annum shall be paid, (o be reduced by £1 for every complete £1 of income the pensioner may derive from all sourcos above £34 per annum, the cost to be borne by the consolidated revenue. The Premier calculates that the passing of the Bill would entail liabilities of £90,000 for the first year, increasing to £126,000 for the fourth, Many of the speakers in the debate expressed regret that the financial position of the colony would not allow of a pension being provided for all the aged. Every civilised community accepts the principle, that the destitute must be provided for, whether deserving of censure for being in that state or of commiseration on the grounds that misfortune has brought them to it. There is of course reason and justice in the contention, that the iatter class shouhi, if possible, be relieved of the indignity of receiving aid from the Charitable Aid Boards, or whatever form of charity may be established in the future. The fact, however, that the pension cannot be made universal, and is only to be allotted to the destitute, creates a difference it) terms without any difference in fact. Mr Charles Booth, speaking on the subject, said : " To select the poor is to pauperise; to select the deserving is to patronise ; to do either is to humiliate." This being so, it appears to us the Bill is useless for the object it is intended to achieve, and that it would be more politic to leave the granting of pensions till a scheme, which shall be partially based on self-help, can be brought into force. We are no more prepared with a scheme than was the Committee of the House of Commons after examining and comparing no less than a hundred suggestions submitted for their consideration. This we are clear upon—that the whole system of charitable aid wants adjustment, and that it should be so altered as to allow of the aged poor being effectively dealt with. Mr Seddon's Bill only provides, in fact, for re-christen-ing the charitable aid dole. The passing of a Bill for such a purpose is much in the proportion of harnessing an elephant to a dog-cart.