102 ASPECTS OF OLD AGE PENSIONS. 



On the whole, therefore, it has been reasonably demon- 

 strated that the claims of honourable and helpless old age 

 to a State pension are indubitably established as rightful 

 on both ethical and economic grounds. 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF OLD AGE PENSIONS. 



The absence in the existing individualistic State social 

 organisations -(with few exceptions) of any provision, save 

 dishonouring pauperism, for the industrious and respectable 

 breadwinners of the past, who from age and poverty have 

 become helpless and infirm, is a lasting reproach, and 

 requires immediate remedial attention if it is to successfully 

 withstand the rapidly growing forces which advocate the 

 adoption of the Fabian and other extreme forms of 

 Socialism. 



Nearly all the advanced leaders of drastic socialistic 

 schemes, such as the advocates of the "Eisenach Pro- 

 gramme," proudly proclaim that they recognise the ethical 

 and economic right of helpless old age, as well as of helpless 

 children to an honourable share of the currently produced 

 necessaries and comforts of life, not as a humiliating 

 pauper dole, but as a primary rightful claim. 



The alleged impracticability of making such provision 

 on the lines of existing individualistic State Socialism may 

 be dismissed in view of the success which has attended the 

 introduction of provision for old age pensions in Germany, 

 Denmark, New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand ; 

 and notably so in the latter. 



The New Zealand experience is extremely encouraging. 

 The Old Age Pensions Act, in that wonderfully progressive 

 State, came into force on the first day of November, 1898, 

 and has now been successfully administered for seven years. 

 The breadth of its experience, and the ability shown in the 

 administration of the Old Age Pension Act form an ad- 

 mirable object-lesson to other countries. An enthusiastic 

 admirer* of the New Zealand scheme of old age pensions 



*Mr. Frederick Rogers, " Old Age Pensions " "Pro. and Con. Series." (Isbister 

 and Co. Ltd., London, 1903.) 



