POLITICAL NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12572, 6 August 1901, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES.

- [From Our Special Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, August 5. LABOUR LEGISLATION. It is reported on reliable authority that the Financial Statement will not be brought down this week. This, it is stated in the lobbies, is due to Sir Joseph Ward’s indisposition. SIR JOHN M’KENZIE. A private telegram states that Sir John M’Kcnzie’s condition is causing the greatest anxiety to his friends. [From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, August 5. WORKER’S COMPENSATION. Mr Tanner, in a letter to the “ Times,” on this subject, is sharp and to the point. He says: "In the ‘New Zealand Times,’ of Monday, July 29, appears an account of the conference of the Farmers’ Union, held at Palmerston North, and the discussion of several matters of general importance. The Workers Compensation Act, of 1900, came in for some adverse criticism from some of the speakers, and the following quotation is cut from your report ;—‘ Mr R. Smith (Pahiatua) quoted ■a case in which a young man who had saved £SOO took up land, and let a contract for the erection of a house. A man employed ia the contract was killed, and his relatives, finding the contractor was ai man of straw, came on the owner of the property, and recovered £<loo from himThe Building Society from which the young man had obtained the loan on his farm, took the balance of his £SOO, with the result that he was left penniless. Canes were quoted by other delegates to show that the Act was of a pernicious character, and it was finally resolved' — “That this meeting emphatically protests against the Workers Compensation Act, and recommends the Executive Committee to have the Act amended if possible.” ’ It is remarkable that the Worker's Compensation Act only came into operation on June 7 last, and Mr R. Smith was speaking at Palmerston on July 26, about seven weeks after. No one seems to know anything of the incident except Mr R. Smith. There are too many newspapers willing enough to report anything of a nature disparaging to labour legislation to allow any such occurrence to pass unrecorded, yet we search in vain for any report of it. Will Mr R. Smith kindly supply the names, the date and the locality in which ■this incident occurred. It must have been between June I and July 26 o! the present year, so it ought not to be a tax on his memory. As a delegate to and speaker at a conference, he is probably aware of the importance of his statements, and, above all other tilings, the necessity of Accuracy. I await Mr R. Smith’s reply.” DEVELOPING A COAL MINE. Among the cargo just discharged from the Tomoana, at the Queen’s wharf are 2166 steel rails, 289 bundles of fish plates, also other railway plant intended for use in connection with the Puponga Coal Aline, Collingwood, where a light railway and a new pier are being constructed in order to facilitate the shipment of Puponga coal to the market in larger quantity. The private company owning the Puponga coal mine has recently been registered in England as,a public company,.with a capital of £70,000, and considerable sums are being spent in various directions for labour and plant, with a view to developing on' a large scale the coal measures discovered and exploited by Mr Joseph Taylor, who is now in WeUington in connection with the shipping of the railway plant to Golden Bay. , THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT. ' The Financial Statement will not, : I understand, be delivered before Tuesday, of next week.