PNEUMOCONIOSIS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1835, 22 August 1913, Page 8

PNEUMOCONIOSIS.

, PROVISION AGAINST DISTRESS,

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY.

■ The presentation of a report on a petition of the widow of a miner who hud died of miners' -phthisis gare Mr) Poland 'an opportunity to refer to the general question of the relief of miners suffering ilrom the disease.

: Mr. 11. POLAND urged that the Gov- ; p eminent wore not doing enough for the , relief of milieus suffering from Iho. disj'easo, arid 'lie maintained that it should be . /classed as an industrial disease, and that "J/a man incapacitated by it from work iehouild be compensated in tho same < way las if 'ho had lost a limb. This'should bo pivade tha law. . ' . , I Mr. Fisher: Would not the same posi- ; '-lion bo recreated as arose'ill 1909?

Mr. Poland: ! don't know and I don't 'care. He had advocated for years, ho said, '_ that the State slioiild bu tho sole insurance 'r.genoy under the Workers'. Compensation. LAct. 'llhis; he said, would'get over tho - i , , A Sympathetic Reply.'

! The Hon. F. M. B. FlSHEß,'Minister in ichairge of -tho Government Insurance DeIpartment, said ho had every sympathy ;with the miners, but theirs was not by jany means an easy case to dwil with. Tho Government had not been idle. The Insurjnnco Commissioner Jiad eoHected'inforiua- | tion, wlhich had been supplied to him, "find which he proposed to circulate amojig i mem hers .of, the ■ House. From that in--1 formation he' had, learned, -what lie did • not know before, that tho reason why the •accident , insurance companies objected to insure against l this disea-sa was Hhdt docr tors wofo umiblo to identify tho industrial disease' -of .': miners' phthisis as distinct 'from ordinary consumption. This and 'other ciroimstari'ses; satrisfied him, that the matter could) not - be dealt with i through,..the! "Workers' Compensation Act. These unfortunate miners would have to bo provided for, but this could not be done under this Act. Otherwise insurance companies might be asked to pay out on in alleged case of pneumoconiosis which; was in fact an ordinary case of consumption, for the doctors could notdistinguish .the two diseases. . _ Mr. Poland: Doctors in mining districts who have', had experience of miners' disease can distinguish. We'liad that in evidence before the Mines Commission.

Mr, Fisher explained how provision .was made against miners' disease in South Africa, and he said this scheme would not be easy of application in New Zealand. , He was convinced, however, that something should be: done for miners l suffering from pneumoconiosis/ and the Government had not lost sight of tho matter. lie hoped the time was not far distant when, permanent provision for these cases coiild be made, preferably-by 1 legislation to deal generally With the rases of all mon permanently incapacitated from work by disease. Whatever provision "was made should be permanent; it was not very 'humane to'give a miner suffering from the disease a grant from the Miners' Relief Fund, and then to turn him adrift.

Mr. j. Colvin (Buller), Mr. J. Payne (Grey Lynn),, and-Mr. T. W. Rhodes (Thames) also spoko of (lie ■need for 'some pro-vision for the relief of distressed miners and their dependents.