OLD-AGE PENSIONS IN NEW ZEALAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In an article published by you on September 22nd you stated, in referring to the Old-Age Pensions Law of New Zealand, that "there are 11,770 pensioners receiving 2325,000 per annum, and the cost of administration is B3,936." In this sentence you correctly give the cost of the administration and the number of pensions for the adminis- trative year ending with March, 1905. But the sum received by the pensioners for that year was not 2325,000, but 2195,000, a very great difference. Your article alleges, on the authority of a magazine published in this country, that the effect of the New Zealand Old-Age Pensions Law has been to deter persons from joining Friendly Societies, thus discouraging individual effort. Directly to disprove a general statement of this kind is not possible. But the figures relating to the growth of Friendly Societies in the Colony seem all against you. For instance, the Old-Age Pensions Law came into operation at the end of the year 1898. At the time the total membership of the Friendly Societies of the Colony was 35,501, and the value of the assets belonging to the Societies stood at 2678,746. At the end of 1904, six years after the adoption of the Act, the membership had increased by 11,801 persons, while 2257,642 had been added to the assets. In the six-year period before the Pensions Law came into force the addition to the muster-roll of members was but 6,747, while the increased value of the assets was only 2177,591. Without asserting that these figures are conclusive
on the point of issue, I think you will agree with me that they lay a rather heavy burden of proof on your leader-writer.
—I am, Sir, &c., W. P. REEVES,
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