The Movement in New Zealand.

In our own country there has lately been a general but vague feeling in favor of some system of old age pensions, but the popular demand has never taken any definite shape, nor has the problem been discussed with any accuracy either in or out of Parliament. In 1894 a Committee appointed by the House of Representatives arrived at certain resolutions which are unimpeachable as far as they go, but leave the crucial difficulties untouched. This Committee had no time for original investigation, and its most important suggestion was that a Royal Commission should be appointed to inquire thoroughly into the matter with reference to the circumstances of the colony. Parliament has ignored this recommendation, and is now for the third consecutive session attempting to deal with the matter at first hand. After months of deliberation the Committee appointed by the Imperial Government has just reported that page 4 hot one of the hundred schemes submitted to it is workable. After a few hours' discussion, without expert testimony before it, without special knowledge, without mature deliberation, and with a jaunty irresponsibility worthy of a juvenile debiting society, our House of Representatives decided last year that it had found a scheme that would do. That such an inquiry should solve such a question would indeed be a miracle, but even a miracle should be discussed on its merits, and this discussion I will now undertake.