The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 4. WORKMEN'S INSURANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 330, 4 March 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 4. WORKMEN'S INSURANCE.

One of the most far-reaching features of Government policy that was sacrificed among the slaughtered innocents of last session was the Bill providing a scheme of national insurance. This is sure to he revived next session, and as it is a, measure to which the Government have frequently pledged themselves, there is a strong probability that it will occupy a prominent place in the legislation of the present Parliament. The scheme seeks to remedy what is to many the great evil of oui present system of old-age pensionS-the possibility that it might tend to the avoidance of thrift. There is more than a probability that there are many men and women who as the days draw near when they become eligible for a pension i are inclined to relax their efforts to save up for a rainy day; and they are scarcely to be blamed. They know that if tliey amass any considerable amount of 'property they will have no claim on the State. The Old Age Pensions Act is a good one; it has afforded relief m thousands of deserving cases, and constitutes but a just charge on the country to ensure that those who have borne the heat and burden of the day shall not be allowed to go in want. It is a credit to New Zealand's humanity ana to tße liberal-minded views of its statesmen that it should have led the other colonies and the Old Country in the institution of this notable reform. But the system has its' weakness. Sir Joseph Ward's proposal is to institute a system of voluntary contributions that, being liberally subsidised by the State, will entitle those making them to substantial annuities in their later years. The scheme is to some extent an adaptation of the system of workmen's insurance which has for many years been in force in Germany with unquestionable success, and is now being adopted by France. Some interesting particulars were recently given ! by the London Daily Chronicle showing . the thoroughness of the German system ; and its huge accretion of funds. The scheme is two-fold. There is the insurance against accident, against invalidity—the latter being equivalent to an old-age pension, towards which each workman is l obliged to contribute a weekly sum until he has attained a certain age—and, lastly, the insurance i against sickness. As regards this latter, j each working man or woman earning j less than 5s a day or £IOO a year is , obliged to join one of the many sick | insurance funds which cover Germany. . According to the latest statistics at ] hand (1907), the number of sick insur- | ance funds is 23,232, with 12,138,906 members. There were in the same year 4,950,388 cases of sickness, with consequent loss of employment, and in each iof these cases, after the third day of illness, and for a period not. exceeding / twenty-six weeks, the invalid drew from j the fund one-half of his salary. If his ] illne*s was of such a nature as to be incurable within the half - year prescribed by the law as the maximum period during which he might hope to receive assistance from the sick insurance fund, the man or woman would be referred to the invalidity fund or to the committee for the poor. On the other hand, if after his illness he had been unable to find employment, he still remained a member of the sick insur--1 ance fund without having to pay his weekly subscription. This right expired, however, after three weeks, at the end of which time the workman ceased to belong to any pick fund, though obliged to join one as soon as he found employment. Another feature of these | funds is that the employer is obliged to pay one-third of the employee's subscription. If the latter belongs to no fund at all. the employer is obliged under penalty to make him join one, even if he should have to pay himself ■ his workman's entrance fee, two-thirds i of which would be subsequently subtracted from the wages or salary. As a matter of fact, the employer, and not . the employee, is held responsible for the regular payment of the subscription. The administrators of the sick funds, all of which are under Governmental con- ' trol and immediate inspection, are able ' to add yearly to their reserve fund, as the following statistics for the 23,232 funds for 1907 clearly show:—lncome ■ £30,998,508, expenditure £15,839,382, surplus £15,159.1 SO. The income ini eludes capital and revenue, so that the surplus represents the total wealth of • the German sick insurance organisations at the close of 1907, a very handsome fund, and one capable of , satisfying the severest epidemic that may overtake the country. Mr. T. 11. Norton, the United States Consul at Chemnitz, recently reported: "'Undenii ably the provisions for compulsory inI surance for old age have done much to j raise the level and comfort for workers as they face the uncertainties of their I occupations and the liability to poverty ' in old age, freeing them from much of \ the anxiety and actual suffering which ( are concomitants of the toilers' lot in ' other countries where social legislation is less advanced."