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daughters throughout the colony were able to make proper provision for the welfare of fathers and mothers who had reached the age when work was out of the question, and when in many instances the state of health demanded the utmost care and attention. This, though often ungrudginglygiven, necessitated a great amount of self-denial and an added expenditure that could be ill afforded. Now, with the beneficent Old-age Pensions Act on the statute-book, the old order of things has been changed in many directions; and with the change there has been brought to the home of many of our young colonists that measure of assistance which has been sufficient to lift them from drudgery, aud, in some instances, want, to the realm of comparative confort. For, by means of the aid now given them by their aged parents in the shape of the pension, they have been freed from that evil which is perhaps the surest destroyer of domestic happiness —namely, the anxietycreated by the difficulty in providing the necessaries of life; and aged people now receive at the hands of their children an amount of consideration which it was practically impossible for the latter to previously bestow. In passing, it may be here stated that the great bulk of the pensioners who prefer to reside in the various homes for old people throughout the colony are people who are practically alone in the world, and who have no children who could tend them in their old age. Eighteen pounds each to an aged couple per annum represents a sum equal to 14s. a week, and such an amount is more than sufficient in most parts of the colony to pay the rent of a comfortable home. In many instances the freedom which has come to the younger generation has resulted in their sphere of influence in the world being enlarged, in that they now find themselves in the position to marry, and are thus able to add to the wealth of the State by the bringing-up of families. I do not deem my report complete without reference to the all-important question of age, touched on in my previous report. Instances have been discovered during the past year where pensioners who had been on the rolls for several years were not of the necessary age, and I cannot advocate too strongly the tightening of the provision in section 20 of the original Act regarding age, which gives the presiding Magistrate power to dispense with corroborative evidence. I say emphatically that the proof of age should be absolute. The Department has adopted a system, where there is any doubt as to the age of a claimant, of getting the necessary information free of cost from the Registrar-General's Department or the immigration records, and, failing these, the High Commissioner in London is communicated with, and it is surprising how few are the number of cases where some evidence cannot be traced which will enable the claimant to go before the Magistrate. It is also surprising, however, to find that the information supplied by the High Commissioner so often disproves the statements of claimants who were prepared to assert that they were of the necessary age. In conclusion, I can only repeat the opinion expressed last year, that sentiment must not be allowed to play any part in the administration of an old-age-pension scheme. Provision is made by law for the qualification of an applicant, and every person who desires to ascertain whether he is entitled to the pension receives every assistance and consideration in his endeavour to obtain what is his right; and it is very gratifying to know that the disinclination to apply, which has existed in the past on the part of people qualified in every way, is gradually being worn down, and that the pension is being recognised more and more every day as what the original Act defined it should be —namely, a provision for " deserving persons who during the prime of life have helped to bear the public burdens of the colony by the payment of taxes, and to open up its resources by their labour and skill." J. Eman Smith, Registrar.