Operate state coal mines;
Organize a state department of public health;
Enact minimum wage laws for women and minors;
Build houses and sell them to workmen.
All these “firsts,” and the fact that she has the lowest death rate in the world, back up New Zealand’s claim of being the “Newest England” and a “Brighter Britain.”
The old-age pension law was one of the many acts for the benefit of the common people put through by Seddon during his long term as premier. He introduced the bill and fought it through to passage in the face of considerable opposition. He took the position that pensions from the state were not a matter of kindness or charity to those past the ability to work, but only their rightful due.
The law is so worded that pensioners need feel no humiliation in accepting state funds. Its introduction states that:
“It is just and right that every person who has for a number of years assisted by his (or her) work in the development of the country, and has also by payment of taxes contributed to its good government, should be protected against want in his (or her) old age.”
The law provides that the pensioner must have been a resident of New Zealand for twenty-five years prior to his application; that he must not during that time have been imprisoned for five years for any offence, and that he must not during the twelve years preceding his application have been in jail four months or on four occasions for an offence punishable by one year’s imprisonment. The applicant must not during the past twelve years have deserted his wife and children and must have lived a sober and reputable life in the year preceding his application. All applications are made at the post offices, where such as pass the examinations are given certificates, each entitling its owner to a pension for one year. The certificates have to be renewed every year.
Since the first pension law was enacted, the amount of the annual allowance has been several times increased. Already the government has paid out more than forty-five million dollars in doles to the aged, and there are, I am told, about twenty thousand people now receiving these pensions. This is considerably more than one pensioner to every hundred persons in the country.