EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7369, 17 November 1898, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thb contemptuous remarks which are occasionally made by the opponents of the Old Age Pensions Act—journalistic and otherwise—are deserving of the most earnest-de-precation. Is it not enough that thousands of the unfortunate of our colonists should: suffer the hardships of necessity after long lives of straggling, and that tihey should have to appear at Court to urge their claims to help from the pensions fund, without their having to suffer the mean and cowardly comments of those who, being in comfortable circumstances themselves, have no thought for others. The burthen of the Conservative comments on the pensions system wh c'n has been set up is that persons who have been wicked and improvident should not be helped. Do they mean to say that the old colonists are of this description, or that even the majority, or a large proportion of them, are 1 Or, do they -wish it to be understood that because a certain number of the probable applicants have not been what '• they; should have been, all those who have slaved:, and hoped against cruel fate, or egainst the monopolising agencies of modern commercial and industrial life, should be allowed to starve. This is not a sentiment of which to feel proud, yet what else can be meant. But, even if some should be helped who have not been worthy members of society, what of that? Will anyone be the worse for the little humane consideration shown ? What, we would ask the relentless censors of their needy fellowcolonists, would be the position of ninetenths of us if we got our deserts? And how much better are the slanderers than the slandered ? The possession of a competence does not, we regreu to say, always portend industry and moral worth. It, on the contrary, too often happens that men are rich beeause they are: unscrupulous and brutal. The Conservative agitators would now do well to allow the Act to be given a fair trial. No good can result from endeavors to shame and offend those for whom the provision is intended, so that the most deserving of them will probably feel a reluctance to apply for muoh-needed help, and many will suffer want and misery rather than make their poverty known.