CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 65, 25 June 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

■FIGUREHEADS. New Zealand, in the matter of associations, is better organised tnan most countries. It is a stickler for procedure and precedent. Associations rarely lack any officer, from patron to assistantsecretary, and, on the whole, it is just as well to stick to the hard and fast British rule. The average man has attended many meetings of many associations, and he has. noticed, with more or less interest, the election of patrons, presidents arid vice-presidents. A local instance occurs in which more than one patron of a society was elected. The "patronage" of a society is an honor, generally not to be shared. The honor generally costs the holder some money, but, as a rule, he does not mind, seeing ■that he is selected for the position because he can pay. If members are selected because they may be useful in a financial way, their utility as working members is lessened, and the honor is weakened. The making of vice-presidents is usually .regarded as a joke. No society selects as a vice-president an "eight-. shillings-a-day" man. It cheerfully casts its mental eye down ~ the ilist of locaA magnates, and selects those who may be "good" for the expected guinea, c whatever sum the honored person may think the job is worth. The multiplication of patrons and vice-presidents is us lalse an idea as the " purse-of-sovereigns " freak that is so common in the community. Neither is intended to be an indication of the worth of the recipients, and ailtlhough every one of six or seven "patrons," and each of ninety-nine vicepresidents may be a good, honest, hardworking man, the system of "touting" for gold has not made him so. The idea of augmenting the funds of associations iby bumping out the list of officers is bad in principle, and should be given its quietus. |

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS. One of the finest Acts on the Statute Book made for the ibenefit of the worker is the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act. It was made for the injured worker, and not for the uninjured lawyer. Mr. Millar, Minister of Labor, replying to a deputation of slaughtermen yesterday, mentioned a case where, out of a total compensation ordered by the Court to be paid to an injured workman, the man received £220. The lawyers who got the rest were not to blame. They expect to obtain more than their cftient out of such a case, .particularly if the client is a poor man. The system permits a lawyer to charge what he likes. There is a Government minimum for labor charges, ibut none for law costs. But that is not the point. The compensation law was made for the 'worker, and there should be no necessity for him to appeal to a helper at all. The facts are ascertainable from a medical man. An unbiased witness or arbiter is a better friend in such a case than a lawyer who desires hailf.the proceeds. There seems no reason to fight these cases in the Court. A man is either injured or he is not injured. He is either capable or incapable of work. 'He is either entitled to compensation or he is l - not entitled to compensation. ' If he is entitled to compensation to the tune of £4OO, there seems to be no reason why a lawyer should draw £IBO of this sum for proving' the obvious. The average injured man is not capable, we suppose, of proving to an allegedly unbiassed Judge that lie has lost an arm or a leg, that lie is unable to work, or that he is entitled to half his' wages from the time he sustained the injury. And we further suppose that a Judge is not capable of interpreting the Act unless he has a lawyer close at hand to inform him as to its vagaries. If the law is made for the worker there should be no vagary about it. There is no question of an injustice being done to the employer of a man 'who has been injured. The employer merely insures the man, and the company with which he is insured .pays the damage—apparently largely to the lawyer. The law will not be a fair law until the necessity of fighting for an injured man is eliminated —that is. until the lawyer is cut right out of the business altogether. If the State can take charge of the estates of deceased persons (administering them as they had never been administered before), it can also see that the law is observed in the case of the Act mentioned, .protecting an injured person from human cormorants.

WORKMEN'S HOLIES. The mail who has a house which is his own feels a certain measure of independence. If he pays rent lie is in a degree a slave to circumstances. The most prosperous communities are those containing people who are their own landlords. Loss of occupation, increases in the prices of commodities, and the other hurdiles always before the rentpayers are not such obstacles. To place the workers of this country in homes of their own is one of the greatest works that can he accomplished by any statesman. An attempt was made a few years ago to house workers in Government houses, and some cottages were built ,at Petone, Wellington, and elsewhere. The attempt was made as an experiment to demonstrate that the -private owner of small houses was exacting a rent much too large for the accommodation he provided. This, of course, was, and still is, the fact. The Government showed that it was possible to build better houses than the average, and to let them ;ift from ten to. twenty per cent, less rental. It also gave the tenants security of tenure and the right to purchase. The system was not popular, because the •tenants were "labelled," so to speak. The new idea set out by the Hon. Mr. Millar to a deputation yesterday is much more to' the point. A worker under the scheme will be able to choose the style

of house ho desires, borrow the money required to ereet it from the Government, and repay it, principle and interest, with a weekly amount that under other conditions would merely .pay a tenancy and give him no right or title to the property. As everyone is aware, the faithful tenant buys the house he lives in for his landlord, and if the Government extends its operations in the direction of allowing people to buy their own houses by .paying ordinary rentals, it will immensely benefit the people. It is sincerely hoped that the experiment may not only bo instituted, hut that it may be carried out on a scale. One of the crying needs throughout New Zealand is permanent and freehold homes for the people.