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.- 1 congratulate the Minister for Social Services upon having introduced a fine bill. Honorable members will recall that for many years Australia and its sister dominion New Zealand were in the forefront in social legislation. Then there came a thin time. For various reasons there was a slowing down of social legislation and we seemed to have become becalmed in the doldrums, entangled in the weeds of Sargasso Sea, and we moved little or not at all. Recently, however, there has been a very encouraging and heartening move forward. I am wondering whether the war is responsible. The struggle in which we are engaged has taught us, amongst other things, the value, the sacredness and the greatness of the home and home life. Everything that is worth while - Christianity, civilization, sanctity, art, and all such things - have their source in the home. That, I believe, is the reason foi the quickening of tha conscience of the people. More and more human life has come to have greater value. As John Buskin said, there is no wealth but the home life. I am delighted that members of the Opposition1 are supporting this bill. It proves that there is no monopoly of goodness or humanity on any side of the House. I was struck particularly with the expressions of the honorable member for Parramatta (Sir Frederick Stewart) and the honorable member for Flinders (Mr. Ryan).' Pensions for widows and orphans has been a plank of the Labour party's platform for many years. The policy was restated in the amended platform decided upon at the federal conference of the Australian Labour party held at Canberra in May, 1939. Child endowment was recently introduced, and, earlier this week Parliament passed a bill to make important amendments to the Invalid and Old-age Pensions Act. This bill represents another rung in the ladder of a complete plan of social security. Wc must build the entire ladder in order to make this country a place to which our soldiers will be happy to return and in which destitution will be unknown. The bill foreshadows, in a small way, the conditions to which Tennyson referred in these lines from his poem " Locksley Hall"- Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new: That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do: l.n this age of mechanized industry, when every nerve is strained, the slightest lack of co-ordination between hand and brain on the part of a worker may cause instant death. A young man and a young woman who love each other may decide to fulfil their destiny and make a home together. If the man makes one slip at his work, the woman who started married life with high hopes may become a widow, and her children, with all the promise of the world before them, may be made fatherless. We in this Parliament should be custodians of these widows and children; that is virtually wha t we will become when this bill is made law. In these days there are many fatal accidents by field and flood. I was not astonished to be told by the Prime Minister (Mr. Curtin) that 16,000 deaths occur annually amongst males between the agc of 20 years and 40 years. We must look after the widows of these workers, and we must care particularly for their children, because each of these little ones is worth more to the nation than his. or her weight in gold. I understand that the scheme proposed in this bill will provide for payments to approximately 30,000 widows and 21,000 orphans. A widow's pension will be at the rate of 25s. a week, and she will receive 5s. a week for the first of her children, if any. The other children are already provided for in a small measure under the child endowment scheme. I am pleased that the term " widow " will cover any wife whose husband is in an institution for the insane and to any wife whose husband has deserted her. I am pleased also that orphanages will he paid allowances in respect of the children whom they are maintaining.