The Daily News FRIDAY, JANUARY 8. AN UNFORTUNATE POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 318, 8 January 1909, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, JANUARY 8. AN UNFORTUNATE POSITION.

Tlic dilliculty Unit Ims arisen in eonnection with tlic mining industry is no nearer solution than it was a week ago. I in their desire to protect the interests of miners, the Government included h tlic nen Compensation Act passed last session Millers' Complaint (a lung complaint peculiar to miners) as une of the diseases which rendered employers liable to jmy compensation. The ein|>loyers refuse to undertake any responsibility the extent uf which is unknown to them, and therefore demand lliat the men s'imuid undergo a medical culmination with the understanding that those who fail to pass may "contract out" hi the terms of the Act, so as to free employers from liability. The insurance companies (including the State Ollice) arc behind employers in the position they have taken up, for they wish, and naturally so, to ascertain how many of the men arc already all'eeted. It was at lirst thought the trouble could lie got, over by increasing the rate of .premiums, Iml after the declaration of the ..Miners' I'Vderaliou thai tlic proportion was oil per cent.- a declaration the correctness of which has since been questioned by more tlla.i one branch of the J''ederal'iun —the comI panics would not aeee.pt the risk without medical examination. The Otago mine-owners are about the only ones who will shoulder file responsibility, an.l that, according lo this morning's telegrams, only temporarily. The men will not consent to examination, and tin mine-owners will not permit them U return to work. A deadlock is the re suit. The (iovernmeiit seem to b( powerless, or almost so. The Premie' I now suggests that the miners shoulc > submit themselves to medical cxaiuiaa I Lion hv life Government medical officers I which'would lie without cost. He stale that the Stale Accident Insurance l)e partinent is unable to accept the «n known responsibility involved, poiiitiii: » out that it is quite, impossible n't th I present time for miners in any part ■.: | Coll" at death (the beuelit provide 1 under the Worker-' Compensation Act § of applications to join friendly societie I The whole position is most iiiifortunal' | made in the law. It would 'have bee I much better, as tilings have turned on 1 been kept, out of the schedule, ladec I if the miners persist in their attituil 9 not. to undergo examination, this wi Bj have to be done, unless the prescl H are being taken to have, the interpret H tiou of the vital clause (clause 10) d H lined bv file Supreme Court trader tl B Declaratory Judgments Act of last s< H sion. This clause opens with the won H "If in any employment to which til 5 ties that this means '"that" the on Bl claims for compensation for "mine H Act. coming into force. The niine-ownf H believe that they would be responsil u for old cases, null therefore are anxio ™ not to employ men already all'eeted the disease. The point on which a r ing bv the Court is to be asked whether the mine-owners are justified assuming that lliey run a serious ad tional risk of accumulated liabili under the Act. If it turns out til tbev are not so instilled, afi early sett meat of the trouble llinv be expect(ln receipt of the Supreme Court's r ing, the matter, according to the I' mier. is to be further considered order to meet (he position, that is. the judgment given enables the Gove: incut to do so. If it does not ena 'tin- Government to lake measures meet the position. H seems to us lb having been responsible —quite unw tingly". of course -for the position 11 ■husViriscn. the Government should c power the State Accident Insurance 1 part incut to indemnify the owners pel ing the reconsideration of the wh I question by hirliaiucnt. and so put stop to the present expensive a.ul v atious deadlock—a deadlock which. 1 a little more care been taken ill ci sidering and drafting the alleratii to the Act. would have been avoided.