DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 27, 1 June 1915, Page 7

DOMINION NEWS.

SPACE FOR MEAT. Pee Prkss iABsociATiON. Invercargill, 'May 31. The farmers in Southend were considerably alarmed on Saturday when it was realised that only one steamer would load meat at the Bluff in June and take some few thousand carcases which are not enough to relieve the works for a week. Feed is getting scarce, and the consequences will un'douhtedly be most serious unless space for at least another 100,000 carcases 'is allotted for June and early July shipment. There is talk of a deputation going to Wellington to lay the position before the Shipping Committee. There is a feeling here that at the last sitting of the committee the claims of Southland have been most ' unfairly dealt with. SOCIAL INSURANCE. Wellington, May 31. , The Hon. R. H. Rhodes, Minister in charge of the National Provident Fund, states that the membership of the fund continues to show a substantial increase. The number of applications for enrolment received to date [has now reached 10,000. This number, j which is, of course, not the actual | membership at the present date, nevertheless indicates very iplainly the exI cedent results attained through the , present policy of lecturing and encouraging workers to join. The amount to the credit of the fund is now approaching £OO,OOO, while during the twelve months ending December 31 last maternity benefits amounting to £lOl-1 were paid through the fund to contributors. The Minister points out that the successful establishment of the fund and the rapidly increasing j membership is, from a thrift point of 'view, very satisfactory indeed, particularly as the sememe is on a voluntary j basis, and is still in the most difficult 'stage of existence, viz., the first five years waiting period, at the end of j which important benefits such as for incapacity, widows, and children comjmence to be claimable. There can be |no doubt that the fund is going to !prove a great factor in solving the problem of social insurance in New .Zealand.