The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-25

gyman on ridiculously inadequate data may, be three or four years out. Many of them must be. and now that the first rush is over, which has kept the officials at work for nights together until midnight, there should be an in- sistence upon closer investigation ana comparison. where possible. with the census of 1s46. Curiously enough that Is regarded as more reliable than some later ones. Those for the famine pc riod are absolutely useless. But even with the 1S46 census checking reliapil fly cannot be assured, and thousand, will get on the pension list. by mere trickiness, unless a new form Of proo' is required. Some of the applicants TOT from the time of the Big Wind IT 1899. Thus 1t would appear that the Big Wind" has an important bearing upon British finances.
 National Registration.
 Mf. Lorcan Sherlock. town councillor of Dublin, and a member of the Pen sions Committee. says:
 owing to the absence of any system in national registration and to the loose manner of filling in the answers on census papers. we are compelled to accept the following proofs Of age Baptismal ertifcates we took without reserve, Where they could not be oo- tained we accepted the marriage ceru ficate showing the applicant to nave been married fifty years ago on tn" ground that the average persons was 20 years of age before he or she waS married. In the third resort. when the applicant proved to us that he or she had made efforts to obtain baptismai or marriage certificates by the production of letter from the. local clergyman saying that such could not be obtained secondary evidence was accepted by both pension officer and the committee. That usually took the form of declar- alton by the clergyman of the partics lar district in which the applicant at that time lived that having made in- quiries he was satisfied that the per son concerned was 70 years of age. IL was not satisfactory or conclusive evil dence, but the act appears to permit such evidence, and in any case noth- ing better was obtainable."
 MT. Sherlock further says that every large railway and steamship company in Ireland, as well as some very largo private employers. have stopped pen. sions to aged ex-employes who are eligible for pensions under the act az from January 1. Their Justification. they say, Is that they will have to pay extra taxation for pensions.
 Some of the figures obtained are ex- tremely alarming, sand show that the most numerous claims have come from districts where the poor-1aw valuation Is very low. showing what enormous difference the act may make to loca, rating under that heading. Indeed, Tn some cases 1t would appear that re- .ceipts under the Pension act cover the whole of the chargeabfe poverty In particular, union. or very nearly so. In County-Mayo. for instance. Swinford Union appears from the latest returns obtainable to be returned as of the to- tai rateable value of $210.000. and tffe nenstoas amount to about s200.0o0 per. annum.
 MT. Sherburne. magistrate for County Meath, says that in Ross. five out or twenty five recipients of old-age pen sions have already died. If the same conditions exist all over Ireland. the problem of providing pensions for the aged poor of the country will solve>lt- self in a very few years by the Iaiiure of the supply of persons qualihed 10 receive them. The young people eml- rrate to Canada or America; or they 90 to England or Scotland. and only the old are left: and that Is why there are so many applicants for old age pensions from Ireland; and that Is the reason why, as the old folk die, there are no others growing old to take their places.
 One axed looking man applied for penston. giving his age as 70. But you are more than 70 years old" said a member of the committee. Indeed ! am that, sir, am s5." replied the old man. Then why on earth have you put yourself down as being 7or The old chap grinned shyly and explained well, you see sir. when get the pen sion I am going to get married, and. of course. nobody would want to marry an old man of S5."