FARMERS AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12571, 5 August 1901, Page 3

FARMERS AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION.

" 4 TO THE EDITOR. ; tiiv, —I desire through the medium of your .columns to draw attention to the very unsatisfactory position' the farming community are placed in under the Workers' Compensation for. Accident Act. From the history of, the-, passing of. this Act through the. Legislative Council and the House' 1 of Representative's, it is., clear'thutf the fjirming community were never intended to be included within the Act, . The Premier voted against the inclusion of rgriculttirai pursuits. Yet, through the caieless way ' the/Act is drafted,' the ' whole. position is one of doubt arid uncertainty. It is clear from the phraseology of the Act, that it was not to have general application. Yet, Avho are excluded from its operation is not made clear; Sub-section 2of Clauss 4 provides that, in addition to the classes of labour enumerated in the previous subsection,, the. Act shall apply to any ether 'hazardous calling. And Clause 8 of the Act leaves it.,to the Arbitration iCourt. to decide in each case which may be brought before it'.whether-the employment, in which an accident has .resulted is one to which the Act applies. This.means that if a farm labourer gets kicked by a ncrse, or falls eff a. dray and is injured, litigation before the Court must b: taken to decide the question, if working, a hcrse or driving ;v team in a dn.v is » hazardous emplovment. The Right Hon the Premier said, when this Act was being passed last year, that to make it apply, to agricultural pursuits would require a large number of clauses to make it apply with safety, because if not carefully safeguarded the result would be somewhat dangerous. Yet now we have th'- Act through' its ■ ambiguous drafting being used to make farmers insure without any of those safeguards which the Premier thought would ba necessary to'avoid dangerous legislation. I hope, in. the interests of all-parties that an amending Act will make, the position clear.—l hm, etc., W. S. MASLIN.