NATIONAL PROVIDENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 67, 9 September 1911, Page 8

NATIONAL PROVIDENCE

PJIOI'OSKD KXTE.VSIOX O'F TIIK STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER. Wellington, Last Night. In the House to-night the Premiei said:—

This fund wa.s established by the Act of la;,t session, and commenced operalions in March last. The Department is now actively engaged in distributing information relating to benefits and corresponding with employers, local bodies ami industrial organisations throughout the Dominion Applications so far received show that all classes are desirous of enrolling—farmers, artisans, laborers, domestics, and clerical workers of all grades, indicating, I think, that the scheme is based 1 on right lines, and that by the time it is in full operation a considerable number of workers not otherwise provided for will be enjoying the security of the fund. Interest in the working of our Act of l.a>st year has been much stimulated by the comprehensive scheme now before the Old Country, and based on compulsion, wherein it differs fundamentally from our voluntary system. One of the most striking features of the British proposals is the thorough manner in which the machinery of friendly societies is to be utilised, and it is clear that any scheme purporting to deal ■with this problem must take into account the work of these well-organised bodies. Tn considering any extension of our system, therefore, the' interests of friendly societies can be relied upon to lie carefully protected. There is no doubt that the compulsory policy in respect of this social reform has made considerable headway in public opinion, and few students of the problem doubt, its efficacy in the older countries, where highly organised industrialism and extensive distress exist side by side. The extremes of poverty and wealth cxistin;? in European States, however, find no parallel, even comparatively, in our land, where we are still fortunately in the position of being able to forestall mauv of the evils so inherent in older social systems. There is in this country the opportunity to attain universality of sickness and health insurance by most economic methods, and at the same time on sound lines, that is by enlisting the young into insurance and preventing them from lapsing from it throughout life. The lines upon which the fund misrht enlarge its scope would be to provide for immediate sickness and enter into the question of assisting local bodies to overcome superannuation difficulties by following the policy outline. Itshould be possible, without entailing hea.vv. financial obligations on the State ot the individual to eventually arrive at as good results as would be attained bv the adoption of the immediate compulsory system. The insuring against unemployment proposed in the British scheme is admittedly experimental and restricted. Tt is the first national scheme of the kind, and its developments will he, watch with interest in those countries where the problem is under obser- | vation. i