DANGEROUS JOBS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1928, Page 3

DANGEROUS JOBS

- • Li UK’S HAZARDS. WIIAT INSURANT K RISKS R KY'KA L SYDN'KY, Nov. 22. Tim fact., as revealed hy the ’latest annual report ol the (.ovorninenl Statistician, that premium income in the’ insurance business has risen Irnm -021.JIM ill 11)22-2:1 to C1.7-I(i,l):ll in 11)272il. in respect to employers* liahihU and workers' compensation in New .South Wales, is not in iisell very interesting. But heliiud it is the story of life’s hazards in a big city like Sydney. The dogmen, who, with superb calm and audacious sang froid. - thrill t lie “rubbernecks” on the crowded pavements as they are drawn aloft tithe tops of the city’s skyscrapers.' and sway about at the end of giant steel ropes, are generally credited with holding down Sydney’s most dangerous jobs This distinction, however, taking any one. big class of workers as a risk under the Workers’ Compensation Act, actually belongs to the wlinrl labourer The next most dangerous job under the Act is that of the muscular gentleman who stands with pink in hand and with statuesque poise on tile-top of tin city’s old buildings and demolishes them wit It rut hless energy The (logman. to the disappointment of an idolatrous public, comes simply under a Hat rate under the Act. along with the •ilehian labourer, as far as risks are concerned. In fact, he gets only aboul 9 s fid a week more than Ihe ordinary labourer. So much for jazzing about in the air at dizzy heights, with an •'pparenl. contempt of death, and with a calm which thrills the crowds below. So much for the debonair dogman whose job, after all, is not the most danger us in Sydney. Technically, Sydney’s most dangerous lob, taking workers’ compensation risks, is that of aeroplane testers- the voting fellows who climb into the sky to test ’plain's before they are put into ordinary use. What, in short, are known a.s the Mrv out” mruL who. as a guarantee of their work, have to testin the air machines which they tliem-scß-es have repaired. But these men. numerically, and in proportion to oilier classes of workers, are so few as to eul little ice, and they do not therefore enter into any basis of calculation under the Act. That is why several insurance authorities give pride of place to the wharf labourers, as the men with life’s biggest everyday hazards in Ryd ney. that is. of course when they are not on strike. Their iob is regarded, from (he practical actuarial standmu’nt. as the most dangerous because of Iheir numerical strength, as distinct from say the isolated aeroplane tester, and because of the fact that those aggressive aristocrats of the waterfront r"n many risks, and at all hours. Anther cosily risk under the Act. is flic steeplejack, hut lie is the tvpo of worker of whom oik' sees very little in Sydney. Another hazardous pursuit under th« Act is that of the steeplechase jockey.