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THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 9

7. No pension-claim shall be admitted unless the statements of the applicant are corroborated on all material points.

8. The pension-claim, with a minute of the Commissioner's decision noted thereon, shall be filed by the Commissioner. If the claim is rejected, a notification to that effect shall be sent to the applicant in writing specifying the grounds for rejection, which shall be noted in the Claims Register. If the Commissioner decides that the claim is established, he shall enter particulars thereof in the Pension Register hereinafter referred to, and issue a pension-certificate to the applicant.

PENSION REGISTER.

9. The Pension Register shall contain particulars of every pension established, and there shall also be recorded therein particulars of any circumstance affecting the payment of a pension.

PENSION-CERTIFICATES.

10. The pension-certificate shall set out on the face thereof the office of payment, and also the date on which the first instalment falls due.

11. If a pension-certificate is lost, destroyed, or mutilated, the pensioner or his duly authorized agent appointed under these regulations may make application, supported by statutory declaration, to any Examining Officer or Postmaster, who shall forward the application to the Commissioner with his recommendation.

12. If the pensioner or other person duly authorized to receive payment of the instalments of a pension desires that the office of payment shall be changed, he shall make application in that behalf to any Examining Officer or Postmaster, and in support thereof shall produce the pension-certificate. The officer receiving the application shall thereupon note the change of office of payment on the pension-certificate, and shall then return the same to the applicant. He shall also forward the application forthwith to the Commissioner, who shall arrange for the payment of the pension at the office referred to in the application.

PAYMENT OF PENSIONS.

13. The Commissioner shall, in respect of every pension granted, provided payment has not been stopped for any reason, transmit to the paying office in every month a form of advice of payment of the instalment falling due on the first day of the following month, and such advice shall constitute the form of receipt for the said instalment.

14. When receiving payment of any instalment of a pension, the payee shall give a receipt for the same, and when making payment the paying officer shall note on the back of the produced pension-certificate the date of such payment by affixing thereto his office stamp; provided that the paying officer, if not satisfied as to the identity of the payee, shall withhold payment and report to the Commissioner.

15. If the payee is other than the pensioner, the payee shall in such receipt certify that to his certain knowledge the pensioner is alive and residing in New Zealand, giving address, and that the instalment applied for is properly payable.

16. The paying officer shall, in every case where the last instalment covered by a pension-certificate has been paid, retain the said certificate, and forward it with his accounts.

17. Whenever any instalment is payable under a warrant issued under these regulations, the pension-certificate shall be produced by the payee at the time of payment, together with the warrant; and where the aforesaid warrant relates to a single instalment, or the last of a series of instalments, it shall be delivered up to and retained by the paying officer on payment of such instalment, and forwarded with his accounts.

18. In the event of any instalment being paid on production of a lost pension-certificate after the issue of a duplicate of such certificate, or on a pension-certificate during the currency of a warrant directing payment to other than the pensioner, the holder of such duplicate or warrant shall have no claim against His Majesty in respect of the instalment so paid.

19. In the event of any instalment not being collected within one month of the date on which it falls due, the advice of payment shall be withdrawn from issue, but the pensioner or other person authorized to collect the pension may thereafter make application to receive such instalment, in writing, to any Examining Officer or Postmaster, to whom the pension-certificate shall be produced, and such application shall be forwarded for consideration by the Commissioner, who shall notify his decision direct to the applicant.

AGENTS' WARRANTS.

20. With respect to a warrant issued in terms of section 14 of the said Act, authorizing payment of instalments to any person for the benefit of the pensioner, the following provisions shall apply:—

(a.) The application for such warrant shall be made in writing to any Examining Officer or Postmaster, accompanied by the pension-certificate if the pensioner consents to the application. If the pensioner does not consent to the application, and refuses to give up the pension-certificate, the application shall state these facts.

(b.) The proposed payee must have reached the age of twenty-one years.

(c.) The warrant, which shall be signed by the Commissioner, shall be in the form numbered 3 in the Schedule hereto, and shall continue in force only during the currency of the pension-certificate to which it is expressed to relate; provided that it may be renewed upon the renewal of the pension, or cancelled at any time for good cause shown.

(d.) No such warrant shall be issued in respect of a pension where the pensioner is absent or about to be absent from the district in which the agent is residing, unless under special circumstances, which shall be set forth in the application.

(e.) The Commissioner shall issue the warrant, together with the pension-certificate if it has been forwarded with the application, direct to the person entitled thereto.

(f.) If the pensioner does not consent to the application, and refuses to give up the pension-certificate, then, if the Commissioner thinks fit to issue a warrant, the paying officer shall retain the pension-certificate when next it comes into his hands, and forward it to the Commissioner to be forwarded to the person entitled to the warrant.

RENEWALS OF PENSION.

21. For the purpose of ascertaining whether a pensioner is entitled to a renewal of his pension the Commissioner may, if not otherwise satisfied as to his eligibility, issue to the pensioner immediately after the close of any income-year a form of application for such renewal, on receipt of which duly completed he shall forthwith proceed to verify the statements of the pensioner by the forms provided for the purpose, and in due course shall investigate the application in the same manner, with the same powers, and subject to the same provisions as in the case of a pension-claim. Having ascertained whether the requirements of the said Act have or have not been conformed to, the Commissioner shall minute his decision on the application, and each decision shall be entered in the Pension Register. If the application is refused, the pensioner shall be notified in writing; but if the Commissioner decides that the pension is to be renewed, he shall issue a fresh pension-certificate in exchange for the expired certificate.

22. Where, at the investigation of any application for the renewal of a pension, it is found that by reason of excess of property or income the pensioner has received any pension in excess of the amount allowed by law, the Commissioner may call upon the pensioner to refund the amount so received.

PROCEEDINGS UNDER SECTIONS 17 AND 18.

23. Where, as a result of any inquiry under section 17 of the said Act, or by any other means, it is ascertained that the pensioner has been paid in excess of the amount to which he was by law entitled, or that the pensioner or any person is guilty of fraud and liable to the penalty provided by section 18 of the said Act, and where it is decided by the Commissioner to institute proceedings in the Magistrate's Court, the said proceedings, in the case of an action for recovery of pension overpaid, shall be commenced by plaint, as provided by the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1908, and in the case of a prosecution for fraud shall be by information laid in terms of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1908.

24. All proceedings under the said Act or these regulations shall be taken before a Magistrate alone, and may be so taken at any time within twelve months from the time when the facts first came to the knowledge of the Commissioner. In all such proceedings the Examining Officer, or other person appointed by the Commissioner, may appear on behalf of the Commissioner, and the fact that any person so appears shall be sufficient evidence of his authority so to do.

25. No Court fees shall be payable in connection with any proceedings before a Magistrate under these regulations.

26. All moneys received by way of refund, either with or without Court proceedings, shall be paid into the Public Account at the nearest branch of the Bank of New Zealand, or, in the absence of any such bank, into the Post Office Account at the nearest post-office, and the bank or post-office receipt shall be forwarded to the Commissioner without delay, with particulars of such refund.