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 rate of the subsidy would vary according to circumstances. A poor man’s deposit, he suggested, should be subsidised to the extent of 25 per cent., while the well-to-do would receive only 10 per cent. Between these extremes there would be a gradual scale. A further point he would have taken into consideration when deciding the rate of subsidy is the size of the depositor’s family; the larger the family the larger would be the subsidy. Incidentally, he believed, that provision might help the solution of the birth-rate problem. Mr. Seddon gave an example of the operation of his scheme. “A young man of five-and-twenty, of the clerk or artizan class,” he said, “deposits, say, £10, either in a lump sum or in instalments, as he prefers. This, with the Government subsidy, and interest additions, is brought up to about £25, which will yield him at the age of sixty an annuity of ten shillings a week; that is if he marries and has an average family. If he has a large family the annuity will be greater owing to the increased amount of the subsidy. On the other hand, if he does not marry, or if he marries and is childless, the subsidy will be on a lower scale, and the annuity consequently smaller. Once he has paid his £10 he will have no further liability.”

In his scheme, a depositor might begin to draw his annuity, if he wanted to do so, at any time, not less than fifteen years from the date of completing his deposit, but, of course, in that case he would get a smaller amount than if he waited till he was sixty. If a husband, however, joined the fund, he would not be permitted to anticipate the annuity without the consent of his wife; and, similarly, a wife would be unable to do so without the consent of her husband. Special arrangements would have been made for people joining the fund when past the age of forty-five. Another feature of the proposal was a provision giving to the members of Friendly Societies subsidies in excess of the ordinary subsidies paid, and in some instances these subsidies would amount to as much as ninety per cent.

Mr. Seddon had the scheme examined by actuaries, and he was assured that it was workable and financially sound. He had no intention of abolishing the Old Age Pensions.