702 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



It difiers from a scheme that has been proposed, inasmuch as 

 it makes the people the direct agents and sustainers of their 

 own schemes and their own pensions. 



I am aware that much may be said in favour of the pro- 

 posal to issue pensions to individuals in a country over a 

 certain age simply because they have been citizens of that 

 country for a number of years ; but just as in the time of the 

 poor-law of Elizabeth there were "the poor by impotence," 

 " the poor by casualitie," and the " thriftless poor," so these 

 three kinds of poor may still be found. The thriftless poor 

 will be forcibly trained to anticipate the coming years under 

 the system suggested, and it is only by some such scheme 

 that habits of prudence and foresight can be enforced for the 

 common benefit and good of all. 



Two hundred years have passed by since the first work- 

 house was established in Bristol by John Gary. It can hardly 

 be said that such houses have trained a large proportion of 

 the people in anything but dependence upon others. Self- 

 reliance, manliness, foresight, thrift, have all been wanting 

 under such a well-meant though impotent plan ; and it is 

 the duty of every citizen in this country, freed as he is from 

 the restraint of custom, to insist that such charity methods 

 as have sprung directly from the abolition of feudal tenures, 

 the grasping by kings and their favourites of monastery lands, 

 and the confiscation of the properties of the craft guilds, shall 

 not find a footing in New Zealand. Our country is free from 

 the incubus of army maintenance, which in England costs 

 treble a pension scheme ; and, perceiving the deficiencies and 

 weaknesses that exist in the social schemes of older countries, 

 it is our duty to exercise judgment in the selection of modes 

 of living in such a way that our land and our people may be 

 like the x\cadian land and the Acadian people of whom the 

 poet sings, where " the richest were poor, and the poorest 

 lived in abundance." 



Summary. 



The following summary gives, in brief, the reasons for the 

 adoption of a national pension scheme, and the benefits to be 

 derived therefrom : — 



1. Our social conditions differ from those of older countries 

 like England. 



2. Our political conditions are different. 



3. It is the duty of people to anticipate the future. 



4. The State is a gainer or loser in proportion as the in- 

 terests of communities and individuals are fostered. 



5. For all purposes of mutual interest and benefit the State 

 can do things better than individuals — e.g., post-office, tele- 

 graphs, taxation, education. 



