they were opened to the applicants. Mr. Reeves has given an interesting description of this in his “State Experiments.” He says:—
“One magistrate, who had 693 cases set down for inquiry before him, announced at the outset his intention of disposing of them at the rate of fifty per diem. Another, less energetic, was satisfied to take them in batches of twenty. The actual rate at which they were heard seems to have been about thirty a day. The courts, on the days of hearing, were an odd, and rather a touching, sight. The lame, the halt, and the blind were there in evidence. Here was some white-bearded pioneer, crippled with rheumatism contracted in the wet New Zealand bush; there, a luckless gold-seeker, maimed by some mining accident; or a seamstress, poverty-stricken through failure of her eyesight. On the whole, however, the old people seemed of good physique and well fed. Almost all looked decent folk; hardly any but were clean, fairly intelligent, and neatly clad. The comfortable appearance of many was explained by their being supported by the earnings of grown-up children. Others had sallied forth from State charitable institutions, called the Old Men’s Homes. A number were still earning a wage, often small and precarious. Generally speaking, the applicants seem to have been frank enough about themselves. Some did not know their age, a difficulty which, however, was usually surmounted by a little patience and the examination of documentary evidence. Several candidly admitted the date of their birth, and retired silent and crestfallen on it being explained to them that they would have to wait a few months before reaching the legal age. One old fellow could not say how old he was, but was certain that his married daughter was forty-eight, and so on. The calculation of minute incomes produced some amusement. The proud and affluent possessor of £39 a year of his own retired only half satisfied with a certificate for a pension of £13, and almost envious of the entirely incomeless woman to whom the full pension of £18 was adjudged. Clergymen, former employers, and neighbours, were brought in as witnesses to character—policemen also, occasionally. The evidence of any neighbour or friend of good standing and repute was usually accepted as sufficient. The police, at first, watched the cases in Court, and, as a rule, their presence was enough to keep fraud in check. A significant feature was the tiny amount disclosed of dire and utter poverty relatively to the whole population of the colony. Poor people there were; but there was little trace of the sordid, dismal, social wreckage of the Old World—the rubbish and ‘tailings’ of urban society.”
Up to 1905, the full amount of pension paid was £18 a year, as Mr. Seddon proposed in his first complete Bill, but in the amending Bill of 1905, the sum was increased to £26, and the Act was widened in other directions. The pension is now paid to all men and women over 65 years of age who have resided in the colony continuously for 25 years before the date of application. There are several reservations in this respect, however, and occasional absence does not disqualify unless the
