The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. Compulsory Insurance.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3212, 23 May 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. Compulsory Insurance.

TnE Foreign Office of tho United Kingdom has recently obtained a report from Mr Rennell Eodd, an attach of the British Legation at Berlin, upon what has been done, and is proposed to be done, in Germany to bring about compulsory life insurance. It appears from this that a measure was introduced in Germany in 1881 which -was to corapol workmen t6 pay a certain amount at stated times into a common fund to secure themselves against accidents, sickness, and want in old ago. Thoidta was not by any means a new one.' We beliovo that it originated with llerr Krupp, of the great Essen ironworks in Germany, and it has been in use in all the important faotories in England for many years. The only thing new was that Prince Bismarck proposed to apply it to every working man in the State. Nothing camo of the measure until two years later, when an Act was passed which provided for the establishment of a fund against sickness only, This , was followed in the next year by one wlnoh made provision for insurance i against acoidents, The latter, however, differed from the first in this material point, that tho employer, and not the employed, m made responsible for the payment of the fees. Various amendments have since then been passed, but they are not very important, except in so far that the principle was extended, so that it applies even to sailors, The question of providing against old age,

uestion of providing against old ag rhich is certainly one of tljo mos nportant considerations in life insut nee, has, singularly enough, not ye een dealt with. Agricultura lborers are not inoluded in any ol he Schemes; but they may be rought under it either by a local ption vote of a community in its ivor, or by special legislation of any f the States composing the Empire, for some unexplained reason these neasures have been denounced in England as having a most deoided ocialistic tendency, The British Lmbassador at Berlin is more juarded in his language, and terms t a "social experiment on a, large male." The idea of. compulsory nsurauce among the working Glasses mving a sooialistio tendency is iortainly the very height of absurdity, inyone who has followed the career )f Prince Bismarok at all will acquit aim of even the slightest tinge of Socialism. If compulsory insurance )f any sort is socialistic, then voluntary insurance must bemuoh more so. We might also point out ..that-if it were so, Socialism has long existed in Prussia, at any rate, under the form uf compulsory fire insurance. Socialism demands community of property, and would stop at nothing short of it. Compulsory insurance of any sort mightaptly betermed compulsory provision against certain things that are either likely or certain to happen. It does npjt itself with the property of tlio assured at ftl), However, it is.uot our aim, at tlio present timo, to concern oqrselyes ivith the question as to whether the idea of compulsory insurance is aooialistin or not. It will, of course, be remembered that a proposal whioh ■ bears some resemblance to the German enactments has tow wade in New Zealand

by Sir Harry Atkinson, and as> it in pretty certain ,to be brought up again on some faturo occasion, wo have thought it advisable to give a brief idea of what has been done in one of the leading European states. Mr Eodd attaches, to his report the leading figures given in the first annual report laid before the Iteiehstag upon the subject. It appears that the scheme is worked in 82 associations, with a members' roll of

8,478,485, whose annual ; wages amount to over a hundred million pounds. These men represent the employes of 269,174 firms or companies. The number of acoidents j was 100,159, and that of accidental

deaths 2,716. The amount paid on account of accidents was £85,000, which appears to us ridiculously I small,, even in comparison with what our Friendly Societies, allow, for evon if we exclude the fatal acoidents, it

does not amount to : quite 17s per head. The cost of working the Acts absorbed £116,200, or a good deal more .than the payments-on account of accidents. The total receipts amounted to £819,000, and the expenditure to £245,000. Of the large balance left, £270,000 has been put aside as a: reserve fund. It is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that the expenses were very heavy when it is considered that there are 89

inspectors, 404 arbitration, courts, and a number of high general oQioials to work the concern,