To obtain the pension a good many conditions have to be fulfilled. First, a person must be sixty-five years of age or upwards. He must be residing in the colony when he establishes his claim, and must be able to show a continuous residence in the colony of twenty-five years immediately preceding the date on which he establishes his claim. Occasional absence will not be considered as interrupting the continual residence, providing that the terms of absence do not total two years. Some difficulty was experienced in making it possible for seamen to come in under the Act, as it was felt that, if special provision was not made in regard to them, they would, by the very nature of their occupation, be debarred from obtaining a pension. It was eventually enacted that the absence of seamen from the colony would not be considered (providing that they were serving at the time of their absence on board a vessel registered in and trading to the colony) if the claimant proved that during his absence his family or home was in the colony.
But that is not all. No pension is awarded to any person who, during the twelve years immediately prior to sending in his claim, has been imprisoned for four months, or on four occasions, for any offence punishable by imprisonment for twelve months or upwards, and "dishonouring him in the public estimation." No satisfactory explanation was given, in Wellington, of the meaning of the phrase "dishonouring him in the public estimation," except that it was said to be in the Danish Act. The Premier (Mr Seddon) was chaffed about it a good deal during the passing of the Bill; but he seemed to think it of great importance that it should be retained (like the old lady's blessed word "Mesopotamia"); and so it was retained. It is really, of course, as used by Mr Secretary Leyds as well as
