BY R. M. JOHNSTON, I.S.O., F.S S. 103 



makes the following obsei-vation thereupon: — "Looking 

 at the Old Age Pensions Act in New Zealand, and the suc- 

 cess that has up to the present attended its administration, 

 it is impossible not to see — even though the colony is small 

 compared with our own country — that the idea of a nation 

 pensioning its old citizens is practicable and workable." 

 .... "The New Zealanders made their experiment with a 

 simplicity and courage which startled old-fashioned poli- 

 ticians, l3ut which has justified itself by results. The 

 preamble to the Act affirms that 'it is equitable that ae- 

 serving persons, who, during the prime of life helped to 

 bear the public burdens of the colony by the payment of 

 taxes, by their labour and skill, should receive from the 

 colony a pension in their old age.' " . . . . "New Zealand 

 found itself with its aged men and women who were past 

 work, and who — for whatever reason — were without the 

 means of subsistence." .... "Separating the criminal from 

 the honest man, the wife deserter, and the drunkard from 

 the decent citizen, they found it in a national system of 

 pensions." .... "A claimant for a pension must have been 

 a citizen of the colon}'' for twenty-five years, must not have 

 suffered during that time for any offence 'dishonouring inm. 

 in the public estimation,' must not, if a husband, have de- 

 serted his wife, if a wife, have deserted her husband, must 

 not have an income of more than £52 pounds a year, or 

 accumulated property of more than £270 and upwards, and 

 must be of good moral character, and within five years of 

 claiming the pension must have led a sober and reputable 

 life." 



Such safeguards as are here stated entirely remove all 

 the objections based upon the so-called universal schemes of 

 old age pensions, and which formed the chief stumbling 

 block to the adoption of the English Select Committee s 

 scheme (Mr. Chaplins, 1900), and adversely reported upon 

 afterwards bv a Departmental Committee consisting of Sir 

 E. W. Hamilton, K.C.B., E. W. Brabrook, Esq., C.B., S. B. 

 Provis, Esq., C.B., and Noel Plumphreys, Esq. 



The following tabular results of the working of the old 

 age pension schemes in New South Wales, Victoria, and 

 New Zealand will afford to those interested a better grasp 

 of their scope and character: — 



