"MINERS' COMPLAINT."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 311, 30 December 1908, Page 2

"MINERS' COMPLAINT."

THE THREATENED TROUBLE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Lust Night. Referring to the threatened trouble between miners anil tlieir employers owing to the new legislation giving compensation for disablement tnrough "millers' complaint," the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Labor, states thai the government cannot do anything in the matter. There is the law. The insurance companies decline to carry the risk. It was never intended that the Act should be retrospective. The premiums for insurance, which are paid by the mine owners, will probably be very , heavy. IL is purely a question betwen the owners and the men. The (iovemmcnt can do nothing. The Act. says that this is a disease for which compensation can lie claimed, and nothing can be. done without the authodity ; Parliament. The insurance companies say that the extent of the risk is un-' known, and until they can ascertain the extent to which it alVects the mining (■(immunity, they cannot insure against it. In fact, it has been calculated, although, of course, it is pure assumption, that in the Waihi mine alone the riskinvolved would amount to a quarter of a million, and insurance companies are not going blindly to enter on a risk of that lnagnuitude. The only thing that can be done is to come to a mutual arrangement between the men and the owners, a temporary agreement until Parliament can deal with the matter, or a permanent agreement. The Act anti-j cipnted that cases would arise where , men would be debarred from getting em • ployment unless they could contract themselves out of its provisions, and that the employer would not accept.Mic liability when he knew that a man suf - feral from tile disease. A clause was ■ put in to enable the "contracting out" ■ to be done, but at the sanity time a proi vision was made that there should be • no "dummy" form of contracting out, as every such agreement had to be appointed by a magistrate so as to restrict the operation of the Act to bona i 'fide cases. Whatever may be the result ; of the present position, whether those . men already suffering from the disease i are exempted from the operation of the Act or not, the law makes provision ' that in all future cases they will be ' able to claim compensation. That is to ■ say, that from the Ist .January, every i man who goes into a mine healthy, and i who at any time thereafter contracts tho_ disease, will be entitled to compensation. That is going a step further than has been the case in any other part of the world. In Great Britain they were afraid to include this disease owing to the difficulty in distinguishing it from ordinary phthisis. A compromise is the best way out of the difficulty un- , til the matter can be dealt with by Parliament.

THE PREMIER'S ADVICE. Wellington, List Night. The following telegrams have passed between Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. R. Semple, president of the .Miners' Federation at Reef ton:— From .Mr. Semple to Sir Joseph Ward. —A mass meeting of Reeftoji goldminers was held 011 24th December, when it was unanimously agreed to resist the proposed medical .examination. The companies are equally determined to enforce the same. All the probabilities are for an industrial conflict. Six hundred miners are all'eeted. (.'an yon suggest a way out of the difficulty! From Sir Joseph Ward to Mr. SempK —ln reply to your telegram of yesterday, I have been milking all inquirbs with the object of trying to effect some settlement of t'his dillicult question, but find it almost impossible without I'arliamentiirv sanction. The liability of . miners' phthisis was thrown 011 the < miue-crwners by l'ailiamcnt, hut the position is that the insurance companies decline to it ccept ;ny risk without examination, on the ground that the extent of the disease is unknown, and thai, they therefore have no other means of j ascertaining the risk which they are ( asked to carry. This question does not , affect lleefton alone; it applies to all } miners in New Zealand, and the liability 1 involved is very Without exanimation it is impossible to ascertain ;l what really would be the responsibility, J, and if therefore appears to me that i'.i „ their own interests the miners would do c well to allow the examination to take place. This would all'ord the necessary information requisite to consider t/lie whole position, so that if necessary the flovernmenl would lie in a position to place the question before Parliament ~ nnd allow Parliament an opportunity of ', seeing what pan he done. I regret that is far as one can we have no power f~ lo go further than this, and I (rust tint rou will endeavor |o induce the miners f! Lo accept examination and thus enable ! 1 temporary settlement, at anv rate, to

be arrived at. It can only be one examination, because if a man has not got the disease, at. the present lime, and goes back to-work in the mine, any development. hereafter entitle* him to compensation. I am anxious to 'help the miners, but they, ivith yuu. will soo thai the position is an exceedingly dillicult one.