"MINERS' COMPLAINT."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 307, 23 December 1908, Page 2

"MINERS' COMPLAINT."

THE IMPENDING STRIKE. AIINISTER FOR LABOR ON THE SITUATION. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The situation which lias arisen in the Retjfton mines was discussed by th-j Hun. J. A. Alillar, Minister of Labuv, with a Times reporter yesterday. "In the Old Country," said Air. Millar. "tliis miner's 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 Ist January next any miner Who contracts this disease is entitled to claim from his employer proportionately as though he lost 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 [isk without an examination of the men who are working in the mines now. 1 thought that it might have been pussible for the companies to agree to allow this examination to lapse so far us the present employees are concerned, and only make an examination of the men coining into the mines hereafter. I have been in communication 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 tlio»dcsire of the mine-owners to in any way evade the Act, but they say the risk is too high. Of course, they lime 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 the miners wdl be helped so far as the future is concerned, because any man who goes into a mine hereafter, having produced his 'medical certificate that he was healthy when he went into the mine, could hold the company liable if be 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, bo.cause t'he question docs not arise oat of the Arbitration Act nor out of any award that the Arbitration Court has made. I am disappointed at the position, as the men who are suffering from this disease have been employed by the companies for years. 1 presume the companies have been making a profit, out 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 passed it was the idea of Parliament, I think, that provision would be made covering the men at present in the companies' employ. The "miner's complaint" was included in the schedule of the Act at the request of the Miners , Federation. It is hardly fair to expect that men whose health has been shattered bv contracting this disease in the mines "should lie thrown by the companies on the outside public or on the Government trf And work for them, and I sincerely Jiope there will be a satisfactory solution of the difficulty."

/ MOKK DISCONTENT. (ireynionth, Last Night. The miners at Blackball are very much discontented over the recent award made by the Arbitration Court , on the pillar rate, which came into force on the 14th instant. The price paid under the old award was 2s 4d a ton, and the new award reduces it to 2s 2d. The, matter has been referred to the Miners' Federation, and the, Blackball miners trust that it will uphold them in refusing to work under the altered conditions. The general opinion is that the new year will witness another strike.