Old-age Pensions Office became an independent department.[i] In 1904 the decision by New Plymouth magistrate Thomas Hutchinson to pay a reduced rate of pension, £12 rather than £18, to a Māori pensioner set a precedent for an unofficial policy that lasted another 40 years.[ii]
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content Gaynor Whyte, ‘Beyond the Statute: Administration of Old-Age Pensions to 1938’, in Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant, eds., Past Judgement, Dunedin, 2004, p. 128.
- [ii] go to main content Whyte, p. 132.; Margaret McClure, A Civilised Community: A History of Social Security in New Zealand 1898–1998, Auckland, 1998, p. 27.