STATE AS PARENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 5, 30 June 1911, Page 7

STATE AS PARENT.

<m NATION A L IXS L" HA X CE. DR. FINDLAY OX THE PASSING OF "LAISSEZ FA IKE.'' 1/)ndon, May 19. In the midst of bis work of proration for the Imperial Conference—and he is working at high pressure just now on the mass of legal questions involved — the Hon. Dr. Findlay, Attorney-General of New Zealand, was good enough to grant me an interview yesterday. The subject on which I sought hsi views was Mr. Lloyd George's great scheme of national insurance against sickness and unemployment, which bids fair to become a land-mark in the history of social reform. It was no surprise to find Dr. Findlay in hearty sympathy with the broad humanitarian principles of the scheme.

"The cardinal novelty in the whole scheme," said Dr.. Findlay, ''including both the insurance against sickness, accident and invalidity, and the insurance against unemployment, is the compulsion. Mr. Lloyd George frankly avows there is no hope for the shemc unless it is made compulsory. "I think this is a view which students of this difficult subject have long since arrived at. The uermans recognised the necessity of compulsion when Bismarck framed that scheme which 1 think must be admitted to be one of the boldest and best attempted in Europe. "The British scheme, is really tripartite. The woi;kcr. the employer and the State are all about equally concerned, although the nominal contributions are different. And there will no doubt be a distinct advantage in making it to. the 1 of-these three parties to keevthat theT other two do their duty. "It will be observed that tlie scheme, ■which in broad outline follows the Ger■nuuvidiffers from it in that no classification is Attempted in respect of trades. ■ The low»ago workers are taken generally without distinction as to trade, and benefits are made applicable to them .generally. Compulsion is not applied when the wage Teaches a taxable income, but ample provision is made for voluntary contribution even in this case.

"But the whole scheme has a profounder significance than appears on the surface. Both sides in politics here have given the principles of the scheme their blessing. It is supported by the'press of all shades of political opinion. One therefore is entitled to conclude that tnere is in this country a substantial agreement as to the propriety and soundness of the State's action in connection with this scheme.

"And hence one is driven to ask, 'What has become of laissez-faire and the doctrinaire individualism of the Manchester school?' Herbert Spencer, voicing that school, strenuously objected that one man should be taxed in order that another man's children might be educated. But under the scheme winch is receiving such wide-spread approval, one man is to be taxed so that another man in sickness or invalidity,"from accident or other causes, may be maintained.

"If this is not the State taking up the role of parent Ido not know what is. It Is idle to ignore the fact that right through these carefully devised proposals the State everywhere appears as a parent with a solicitous eye and a helping hand for the genuine, unfortunate- worker. These observations apply with increased force to the provision by way of insurance against unemployment. It is true that the scheme is here limited to. special trades in which unemployment is seasonal or at least common. But the principle is proposed, and 1 prssnme will be established, that the community may be properly taxed in order to help in the maintenance of those who cannot find work.

"Such a proposal, one is disposed to think, must almost make the old economists, whose theories have governed the economic views of British politicians for the last 100 years, almost turn in their graves. The same principle underlies the provision for assistance in maternity cases, and for sanatoria in connection with consumption and similar diseases. The. whole measure is from start to finish in keeping with the best modern humanitarian sentiment. THE STATE'S PARENTAL DUTY.

"Faced as Mr.Llovd George, is witli the appalling figure* of unemployment due to sickness, accident, old age, and want of work, and by the misery, suffering and degradation which unemployment has everywhere involved, he lias devised a scheme which triumphs over all the narrow tenets of individualism, and commits the British people to the expenditure of millions of pounds of public money to alleviate and reduce the misery and suffering I have alluded to. "We in New Zealand have no conception of the financial burdens this scheme will involve in a country so thickly populated and filled with such poverty as this. But the Motherland has at least afforded us an example of what is the parental duty of the State towards those who under the new industrial system that has grown up throughout the last 100 years, have to bear miseries in no way ascribable. to any fault or misconduct of their own. "As to the success of the scheme, that branch of it which refers to insurance against sickness and invalidity, there can be no doubt, in view of the success of the German scheme, it will be a permanent blessing. The provision for insurance against unemployment is an attempt to deal with one of the most baffling problems of modern times. /No* scheme has yet succeeded in solving, oi ever even materially reducing, the evils of unemployment due to mere want of work, and it would be rash to predict that any great success will follow Mr. Lloyd George's proposals. "There is nothing original in them. They have been propounded for years by many of the writers and statesmen in Europe, and such attempts as have been ma.de, principally in Switzerland, to put in practice similar schemes, have had to be abandoned. • "It will be observed that Mr. Lloyd George is working the machinery and the offices of the friendly societies with regard to that part of the scheme applying to invalidity, and it seerns that this is an exceedingly wise step. One cannot read the detailed reasons he gave for this provision without recognising how much the agencies of the fricndlv societies will facilitate the working of tile scheme, and help to secure it against many possible evils. The employment '■ of the trade unions in connection with ; insurance against unemployment is also n strong, and I believe a wise course. But, as I have said, this part of the ! great measure is one about the success of which in all its phases the chief ' doubt exists. ' NEW ZEALAND SCHEME j VOLUNTARY. "One is tempted to compare the scheme i with our National Provident Fund, made lawtin New Zealand last year. I tlii'nft it will be. found that in that Act the contnlmtion of lh( Stito will be even more gnutous m pioportion to the number binifited than it is'm Mr Llojd Gunk's Bill Til I unci moteo\ pis the cmflltaer escapes any pay nienl Th'e sjrikmg'diffeieuco lioweyer btUeen and "to "Bill fl tint tlurt i? "¥ »H re I>° proVtsion'.foi