716 REPORT— 1889. 



When we compare the number of members of these societies with the total 

 population, and see how many remain unprovided for, it is manifest that the day 

 may come when the nation may, following the lines of our Education policy, think 

 it necessary to supplement the efforts of individualism by establishing a national 

 organisation for provision in sickness, which those who have not availed themselves 

 of existing individualistic efforts may be compelled to join. 



Individualism has scarcely done anything towards making provision for old age, 

 and yet such provision is one of our greatest social necessities. 



The life of the weeklj^-wage earning class is shadowed by the prospect of an 

 old age of poverty, privation, and dependence. Parochial experience of this. 



As competition intensifies, willingness to employ men advanced in years 

 decreases. Difficulty of estimating the extent of old age poverty. Reasons for 

 thinking it probable that something like one-half of the population who live 

 beyond 60 years of age are reduced to become recipients of some form of poor 

 relief. 



In the industrial classes 59-49 per cent, of those who attain manhood reach 60, 

 and 49'19 reach 65 years of age. 



The cost of an annuity of 12Z. a year, purchased at 65 years of age, precludes 

 the possibility of expecting the wage-earning classes generally to save sufficient for 

 this purpose, and utterly impracticable to render such saving compulsory. 



But an annuity of 5s. a week, payable at 65, can be purchased at 18 years of 

 age by a weekly payment of 2M., at 21 by 3^. a week ; or the same annuity may 

 be purchased by the payment of Is. 8d. a week for three years between the ages of 

 18 and 21. 



Reasons for preferring in a national scheme that the contributions to the 

 pension fund should be paid in the early years of working life, say, between the 

 ages of 18 and 21, or in the case of apprentices 21-24: — (a) Removes the difficulty 

 of arrears ; (b) diminishes cost of collection ; (c) necessitates a smaller contribu- 

 tion ; (d) exacts it at the period of life when it is easiest for wage-earners to make 

 the necessary sacrifice, because the income of artisans and labourers reaches its 

 highest point in early manhood ; (e) the demands on their wages for family 

 necessities are then lightest. 



Could the wage-earning classes bear such a deduction from their wages ? 



The majority of men could, but women's labour is so ill remim crated they 

 could not. 



Ought the whole amount be exacted as a contribution from wages ? 



The German insurance scheme exacts only one-third of the pension premium 

 from the workman. One-third is paid by the employer, one-third by the State. 



In Denmark a scheme has been adopted according to which the parish doubles 

 the amount contributed by the working-man subscriber, and commutes it for a 

 pension. It is proposed that in future 25 per cent, shall be added from the fimds 

 of the parish, and 75 per cent, from the funds of the State. 



The justice of requiring rent and interest to contribute towards the support of 

 the aged. The substitution of compulsory insurance for the poor law without 

 requiring any contribution from rent and interest would remove a burden which 

 the well-to-do now bear and place it on the poorest ; therefore equity demands that 

 part of the burden should be borne by taxation. 



Proposal. All persons to be required to pay 6^. 10s. on reaching the age of 21, 

 either in one payment, or by deductions from wages till such sum be contributed 

 by them to the pension fund, and aU persons on arriving at the age of 65 to receive 

 a pension of 5s. a week. 



Reasons why all persons, whether weekly-wage earners or not, should pay con- 

 tributions to the pension fund. 



Reasons why, notwithstanding the fact that part of the cost would be defraj'ed 

 from general taxation, the proposal would not have a pauperising tendency. 



The benefits which would result. 



