COMPENSATION TO SEAMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 146, 19 June 1908, Page 5

COMPENSATION TO SEAMEN.

~— A DRASTIC MEASURJ -. :— - ~ -'''-^J Another drastic bill affeclang; Auptralian owners of ships has heen introduced into the Federal Parliament by the Gov-' eminent, and, therefore, will presumably be proceeded with next session, namely,' r : the Seamen's • Compensation Bill,•>;and • should this become law in.jts entirety, local shipowners will find their burdens increased to such an extent that,-it is predicted, the- old remedy of passing it on to the public may be adopted in the shape of increased.freights on the coast. It will also, it is said, become a serious handicap to any locally-owned ships trading foreign, and win materially help to discourage shipowners and drive the trade into foreign bottoms; - ;• ; This bill? is a most complicated oae. Where death results, say by shipwreck or otherwise; the maximum to be paid, is £400, if the-seaman has been, three years in the same employ, or if less thin three years, then the computation of three_ years* wages will be estimated at 156 times his actual weekly wages during the time he has been employed. This provision applies to any seaman whose friends are wholly-dependent -upon his earnings, dependants meaning: "Such of the members of the seaman's family as were .wholly or in part dependent upon the earnings" of the seaman at the tinie of his death, or who would, but for the incapacity due to the accident, have been so dependent, and where the seaman, being the parent or grandparent of an illegitimate child, leaves such: a child so dependent upon his earnings, of, being an illegitimate child; leaves; a parent or grandparents so dependent upon his earnings, shall include such an : illegitimate child and parent or grandparent respectively." in the.case of leaving dependants, Tyho; are only partly, dependent upon such seaman's earnings, the bill provides that the sum to be paid shall not exceed what would be paid> if the dependants were wholly dependent upon the deceased •ieaman.- ■'. .:'-■'" '■; '- Eor, hurts or injuries a complicated series of schedules and scales of cohi- | pensataoh are set out; and conditions are ; stipulated for medical examinations -by--1 doctors on behalf of the men injured, for the owner and also for medical referees. . .Owners declare that such a'"measure wflhbe-anotherscyere,blow"to.Anstralia_ shipping enterprise, and that the time occupied by ship owners in investigating slight casualties, apportioning damages. etc, will be a. serious matter,-while it would be almost necessary to employ some expert to sift out the actual conditions of each injury, as frequently the men themselves = cannot remember how casualties—lose. It is pointed out (hat shipowners have always subscribedUberaily to -hospitals; but .if.wiejr. now:-have to- pay doctors,make large allowances to their men through accident and infirmity, then the need for hospitals will t-j a large extent be done away with. It may be pottiNe, shipowners say, to insure with accident offices,, but even in thia case the cost will be enormous, and legal difficulties and complications must be aggravating and discouraging to ship-owners.—Sydney "Daily Telegraph." * ,'