The Committee, with Mr. Chaplin as its Chairman, which was appointed last April to re-consider the question of Old Age Pensions has just presented its report. In broad outbies its proposal is that a pension authority shall be established in every union; and that every British subject, man or' woman, of sixty-five years of who for twenty years past has not been imprisoned without the option of a fine, and has not received poor relief "unless under circumstances of a wholly exceptional character," whose income from all sources is less than ten shillings a week, and who "has endeavoured to the best of his ability, by his industry, or by the exercise of reasonable providence, to make provision for himself and those immediately dependent upon him," shall be entitled to a pension of from 5/- to 7/- a week. The money is to come mainly [from the local rates but partly from the Imperial Exchequer. The Committee confess that, within the time at their disposal, they have been quite unable to fora -any reliable estimate of the number of people who were entitled to a pension under the scheme, or the cos: of it, and they proposed that this matter should be investigated by experts during the recess. Unofficial estimates vary between five or six millions and twenty millions a year; and it will be interesting to hear how, if the Government adopts the scheme in its coming Pensions Bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will propose to find the money. It is pointed out that something will be saved in the old poor Isw administration; but the amount will probably not be very great.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.