Victoria Times Colonist, 24 November 1939

Pauline Pension Hotly Debated

The $4200 annual pension paid by the province to FA Pauline of Victoria, former agent general in London for British Columbia was vigorously attacked in the Legislature last night by two CCF Members, and as vigorously defended by two Liberal members before the legislature voted for it. Conservative members took no part in the debate.  The act providing the pension was placed on the statute books by a Conservative administration.

Samuel Guthrie, CCF, Cowichan-Newcostle, opened the argument as the House discussed estimates of the provincial secretary’s department.

In his constituency Mr Guthrie said, were many persons who were intimately examined by welfare and relief workers to see if they grew cabbages or potatoes, or had a few chickens.  Yet as far as he knew no one looked into the details of Mr Pauline’s life or the lives of this family.

NEARLY STARVING

“Why should this gentleman be in receipt of such a large pension when so many of our people are living on the verge of starvation?” Mr Guthrie asked.

“You’re not blaming this government for it, are you?” asked EC Henniger, Liberal, Grand Forks – Greenwood.

“I most certainly am,” Mr Guthrie replied. “I know full well a Conservative government granted it, but it this government that is paying him now.”

HGT Perry, Liberal, Fort George, said Mr Guthrie could bring in an act to abolish the pension.  Mr Guthrie said no act of his would do away with the pension “to this friend of the Liberal Party.”

Premier Pattullo, joining the fray, recalled he, as leader of the opposition, had objected most strenuously to the act.

“I didn’t think it proper, but there are now reasons why it shouldn’t be stopped – I’m not going into them, but there are many reasons why it should not be interfered with,” the Premier said.

He said no doubt Mr Pauline had hypothecated his pension and that the government of the day had thought his services sufficiently of value to give him the “Honorarium”

Have you asked this gentleman’s sons or daughters to support him,” queried Mr Guthrie.

EXPANSIVE PENSION

Mr Perry said the late Premier Tolmie evidently had an extremely generous nature when he brought in act for such an expansion.  FP Burden, who followed Mr Pauline in London, certainly was as much entitled to a pension as Mr Pauline, he said, although he was not suggesting such a pension be provided.

SANCTITY OF CONTRACT

“But it is wise to remember this – this act was passed by the Legislature, and although the present Premier opposed it, it was passed, and is now on the statute books.  It would be unwise to repeal it now.  It is not an ordinary law, it is more a contract, it has the sanctity of a treaty,” Mr Perry said.

Mrs DG Steeves, CCF North Vancouver, said sanctity of contract had nothing to do with the case. She recalled mothers’ pensions had been cut without members worrying about sanctity of contracts, and many mothers had done more for their country than the gentleman in question.

“When I hear this talk about sanctity of contract I think of Mr Bumble who said “the law is an ass,” and I think it is an ass,” Mr Guthrie said.

Mr Pauline receives his pension under “an act to provide for the payment of an allowance to Frederick Arthur Pauline.”

Mr Pauline at one time was Liberal MPP for Saanich and was agent-general in London when the Tolmie government took over office in 1928.