THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1907. COMPENSATION FOR SERVANTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8514, 20 August 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1907. COMPENSATION FOR SERVANTS.

Seeing that there are over 1,500,000 domestic servants in the Old Country, the application of the Workmen's Compensation Act of last year to this class of workers naturally caused some consternation., The Act came into force on July Ist, and the London papers by the last mail record a few of thfi first claims. Some were amusing. A young maid servant, sitting up while the family was at the theatre, yawned as midnight approached and dislocated her jaw. Next morning she lodged a claim for compensation. A house-agents' collector, who had a portion of his trousers torn away by a savage dog, sought compensation for his wounded garments, and a servant, who fell as she was coming downsatirs with the afternoon tea, claimed for the accident although the only damage was to the china. Other impossible claims were those of a gardener, whose hat had been spoiled by water from a hose pipe, and a servant whose hand had been lacerated in opening a bottle. The insurance rate for household servants is 2s Gd or 3s per annum, and for outdoor servants ss. The Act covers nearly i.ll employees, permanent or' casual, who are not earning £250 a year, and it is not | surprising to find that one office had, befox-e the Act came into operation, issued over 100,000 policies.' The Bill is so far-reaching that a clergyman is liable for accidents to his choir-boys and even his curate. The young man may trip in his nervousness on entering the pulpit or catch

measles at a parishioner's, but the vicar is liable. Malingering is guarded against by the provision that no compensation shall be allowed for an accident which incapacitates for less than a week, and the clause providing that compensation is not in addition to wages, and at most is only half the amount of wages, is designed to prevent the manufacture of accidents. One of the most curious insurances effected under the new Act is that in which a widow lady residing in the country has taken out a policy of insurance for the man who looks after and keeps in good order her husband's grave.