Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1894. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4857, 22 October 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1894. OLD AGE PENSIONS.

A Cojijiittek which included many of the best men in the House of Representatives lias reported in favor of the principle- of old-age pensions, and recommends the Government to appoint a Royal Commission during tho recess to complete a proposal which it Ims outlined, The project, ins it commends itself to the Committee extends a pension to both sexes after the ago of sixty.five years, and fixes eight shillings per week for each male mid female pensioner, and fifteen shillings per week for a married couple, Conditions are imposed to limit the pensions to persons who have resided in the Colony for twenty years, and to exclude criminals and habitual drunkards from participation in it, Tho Committee does not suggest how the money for pensions should be raised, but in an appondix to the report, its Chairman, Mr Wm. Hutchison, deals with this point pretty conclusively. He estimates the actual number for whom provision would have to be made to be 10,240.- Of these 7,000 will be married couples absorbing £3O per year, 2,460 single nialcs.and 780 single females requiring £2016s per year. He calculates that the total' spi required for-pensions will be £172,392 perapum, arid suggests that the money should be- obtained by a primago duty on all gpods imported to the Colony, The estimate of 10,240 pensioners' excludes all those who are unlikely from various circumstances to be charged oil the list. Supposing that Mr W, Hutchispn's ideas were given effect to,the result in this town would be easily calculated. Our proportion of pensioners would be sixty persons above tho age of 65 and to support them on the scale named wo should have to pay each year a little more than a thousand pounds, Would the people of this town he willing to find a thousand pounds each year, say to have their borough rates doubled, to effect siioli an object. We venture to affirm that if a proposal in such a directionwei'e put | to a public meeting it would be rejected by a large majority and yet the same public meeting would carry by an equally large majority a resolution for the Government; to grant the pension, because peophV do not realise that the, cost of all these highly benevolent and comlUiendable projects are takeu out 'of t'lipjr own pockets. Is the. pension I project necessary, forif it were necesi sary we for one would ppfc object i to pay five pounds a year towards it and this would probably be, our own share of its co>t.,.. .We jcarcely; jfchink # is jieccssai'y! i There are doubtless .sixty flld persons in" 'Masterton pyho w,ould'b,e very willing t.o receive a- pension of eigbt'sbilliugs a

week for tlie remainder of'"their:; lives, but most of them ofo getting alongfairly.well without it.' Some ar&able to earn a little money for themselves, and others have children and friends who care for them arid provido for,them, Ont'of the sixty there are probably not more than ten who are in urgent need of a pension. The main objection to a pension scheme, such as that outlined by Mr W. Hutchison, is its cost, and if the people of New Zealand once realise this in its true light thoy will reject it. It is all very well for members of the House to proposo a generous allowance for all elderly peisons, and from one point of view it is highly popular. We might say to Mr W. Hutchison, M.H.H., "Heaven bless you for your project, to secure from want all tho old people in the Colony," but whon a man comes to think over the matter, and to realis© that he will have to pay five pounds a year out of Iris own pocket to enable these patriotic statesmen to earn the gratitude of tho aged, he is apt to pause and think of his wife and children and the incomo tax, the charitable aid tax, and all tho other general and local taxes, and to wonder whether, if this kind of generosity be practised too extensively he will be able to pay twonty shillings in the pound. Then again Now Zealand as a pension Colony would .attract improvident people to her shores from the ends of tho earth, and is this worth doing ?