CANDID APPROVAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1867, 11 March 1913, Page 4

CANDID APPROVAL.

The British Insurance Act has been very strenuously fought by the opponents of the Government, and unkind things have been said of the man who is responsible for it; but already we have the unique spectacle of Belgium copying Britain in this beneficial reform, unique because for so many years Britain has been the one to copy movements of this sort instead of giving the lead. But apart fiom this, we have in the latest London files to hand ample evidence of a candid approval even from bitter Opposition papers. The Pall Mall Gazette, for instance, one of the most strenuous anti-Govern-ment papers agrees that the day on which the Act came into force was a red letter day for Britain and adds:—"The benefits receivable under the Insurance Act came into force this week, which we may consider a landmark, therefore, in our social history. Until the scheme has been te-ted by the first batch of liabilities, it is impossible to judge of how near its methods have been brought to efficiency. But, in spite of all blemishes, the fact remains that a great step has been taken towards improving the security of industrial life, and that the system now inaugurated is a contribution, not only to the material welfare, but to the moral and educational progress af the poorer classes."