Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891. Compulsory Insurance.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 17 January 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891. Compulsory Insurance.

No one will assert that the laws relating to Hospital and Charitable Aid, are satisfactory. It will be admitted that many claim cheap doctoring at the public expense who can well afford to find the cost. Charitable Aid has become a mis-nomer from the manner in which the public money has been demanded and given. These are facts, regrettable, but hardly improveable without .very different machinery. Previous to the enactment of these laws, Sir Harry Atkinson made one attempt jbo introduce his cheme of National Insurance. Its fate was to be laughed out of the House and thus massacred at' its conception. We do not remember whether Sir Harry Atkinson claimed the whole credit for the suggestion, or only for its adaption to the Colony, but about the time he proposed such a scheme here, the learned Germans had mad c

the same law in their own country. Colonists pride themselves on their freedom, and " eompnkion " grates on tfieir e&rs, but " (Jonipulsory " insurance is nothing different to compulsory taxation. We endure the latter, why not try the Tormer and thus lighten our taxation ? The Germans have their law divided into ** lr ?6 l . portions. The first, that, of insuring against sickness, became law in 1888* A payment equivalent to one and a half to two per cent of the average local wage is exacted from the workman, excepting those employed in agricultural pursiiits, domestic servants o".r the servants of commercial In return ibi* this payment, the insured receives medical advice and attendance, medicine and medical appliances during sickness. He also receives, while laid aside from work, and for a period not exceeding thirteen" weeks, an allowance equal td ofte-Malf" the usual local wage, if he has to be removed to a hospital, his family receive one half of this fixed allowance. The contributions- are compulsory, and are deducted from the wages by the employers, who have themselves to pay one third of the amount. The secQnd instalment, against accidents, became law in 1884. The contributions are levied upon the employers, who pay ill proportion to the number and average wages of their men, and according to the risks of their particular industry. The masters who supply the funds also conduct its administration, but the workmen are represented on the Boarft of Control. The last instalment provides for insurance for old age, and includes all persons above the age of sixteen who work for regular wages. All workers are divided into four classes according to their earnings. The workpeople pay one half and the employers the other half. In ca^e of incapacitation the workman is entitled to a pension for life or until recovery, complete or partial. On reaching the age of seventy, he is entitled to receive a pension whether incapacitated or not. The pensions are to rise from a fixed minimum on a grade proportioned to the payments made. To every pension granted from the insurance fund, granted in accordance with these principles, there will be added a uniform Imperial contribution from the National exchequer. No provision is made for workers whose earnings when in health and lull employment exceed a stated sum. The proportion fixed for premums to ensure the whole of these advantages, represents in all some five to seven and a half ppr cent, but of these contributions the master pays one- third to the sickness premium, the whole of the accident and one-half of the old age premiums. Naturally the payments become the cost of tlie worker in the adjustment of wages. It must be possible to obtain a report on the working of this system, and we trust one will be obtained. Anything must be better than tli3 present drain on the industrious that is now made, to nurse and feed the idle and improvident.