THE REEFTON MINERS’ DIFFICULTY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2381, 23 December 1908, Page 5

THE REEFTON MINERS’ DIFFICULTY.

HON. J. A. MILLAR’S OPINION

[Press Association.]

WELLINGTON, Dec, 22

The situation which has arisen in the Reeftdn mines was discussed by the Hon J. X. Miliar, Minister of Labor, with a “Times'’ representative yesterday. “In the old country,’ said Mr Millar, “this miners’ disease is placed in the schedule of the Workers’ Compensation Act, though the form of the disease as known in England is somewhat different to that which troubles the miners here. We adapted the English principle to New Zealand requirements. The effect of our legislation will be that on January Ist next- any miner who contracts this disease is entitled to claim from his employers proportionately as though he dost an arm or a leg or met with an ordinary accident. What the Reefton mine owners say is that the insurance companies will not take the risk without examination. It is an unknown risk because- they have never had to pay for it before, and they therefore decline to .accept the risk without an examination of the men who are working in the mines. Now, I thought that it might have been possible for the companies to agree to allow this examination to lapse so far as the present employees are concerned, and only make an examination of the men coming into the .mines hereafter. I have been in comnmnication with them to that effect, but the companies say they cannot possibly agree to that because they cannot carry the risk themselves, it being much too heavy. So far as I can gather, it is not the desire of the tmine owners to in any way evade the Act, but they say the risk is too big. Of course tliev have to protect themselves, otherwise the premiums charged by the insurance companies would be so very high if the miners’ complaint is as prevalent as some say it is. The intention of the Government in placing this disease in the schedule of the Act was to help the miners and of course tbe miners will be helped so far as the future is concerned, dheause any man who goes into a mine hereafter, having produced his •medical certificate that he was healthy when lie went into tho mine, could hold the company liable if he contracted the disease afterwards. I admit that the situation is a peculiar one, in that it will be neither a strike nor a lock-out, should the outcome be as predicted, because the question does not arise out of the Arbitration Act, nor out of .any award that the Arbitration Court has made. I am disappointed at the position, as the fnen who are suffering from this disease have been employed by the companies for years I presume, and companies have been making a profit put of their labor, and it has been whilst working for them that the miners have contracted the disease, and they are now apparently going to be left unprovided for. When the Act was ]Kissed it was the idea of Parliament, I think, that provision would be made covering tlio men at present in the companies’ employ. The miners’ complaint was included in the schedule of tho Act at the request of the Federation. It is hardly fair to expect that men whose health has been shattered by contracting this disease in the mines should be thrown bv the companies on tho outside public, or on the Government to find work for them, and I-sincerely hope there will be a satisfactory solution of the difficulty.