506 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



In fact, there is no reason why matters should rest at this stage. 

 TJie great public importance of the question and the imminence 

 of the fifth Federal elections would entirely justify the presenta- 

 tion of the views of this Association to the Federal Government. 



The president and vice-president of this section are eminently 

 fitted from their high official positions to act for the Association, 

 and the president is doubly qualified as one of the pioneers of the 

 Hai-e system in Australia. If Professor Nanson was associated with 

 them, it would be further ample evidence that the question had 

 been studied with the highest scientific acumen, and an entire fre- 

 dora from party bias. Tasmania has led the way by the adoption 

 of the Hare system, with the Droop quota and Gregory method 

 of effecting transfers. Other States have adopted a system of con- 

 tingent voting. If the Commonwealth should refuse to follow 

 the lead by its constituent States, it would demonstrate anew that 

 in matters political the whole is not always greater than its part. 



4. PENSION FUNDS. 



By Assistant-Professor E. M. Moors, M.A., F.I. A. 



One of the very noticeable features in modern social life is the 

 growth of what is termed solidarity. It is becoming more and more 

 widely recognised that a community or a nation is an organism — a 

 unit in itself — that the nation as a unit suffers from diseases of the 

 body politic, even as every individual suffers from his particular 

 individual ills. And more than that, the illness or social dis- 

 turbance which aft'ects one part of the organism is far from being 

 defined to the special part directly affected, but produces serious 

 disturbance in the welfare of the general organism. It has of late 

 been recognised that the illness of the individual, with its conse- 

 quent suffering to wife and family, means injury to the community 

 in many ways, that the present custom of letting the sufferer get 

 well in the usual haphazard way is non-economic and wasteful, 

 and causes much suffering to individuals. 



Equally, too, is it becoming recognised that unemployment is 

 a sickness of the community and to be treated as such; and it has 

 lately been practically admitted that old-age pensions and invalid 

 pensions are necessary in a well-regulated community, not as a 

 charity, but as a right. Charity is always detrimental to the self- 

 respect of the indiivdual, while the granting as a right removes this 

 stigma at the same time that it removes the fear and dread that 

 presses so heavily on the minds of many — ^the fear and dread of a 

 helpless, indigent, old age. 



