MORE SOCIALISM! RUSSIAN STATE INSURANCE OF CROPS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1201, 8 March 1895, Page 8

MORE SOCIALISM! RUSSIAN STATE INSURANCE OF CROPS.

A Vienna paper states that the Russian Government has recently devoted some attention to the subject of harvest insurance, -owing to the terrible distress caused amongst the peasantry in a large part of Russia by the failure of the harvest in 1891 and 1892. A project was started in 1893 with the object of affording assistance in the future by means of some form of insurance. The scope of this scheme of harvest insurance was confined to the fifty European Governments of Russia. The project is based upon two forms of harvest or crop insurance, one of which, applying to all peasants’ holdings, is compulsory; the other, applying to other kinds of holdings, voluntary. Fields which have been abandoned, or so poorly cultivated as to offer no prospects of a crop, are excluded from insurance : for these no payment is made. The premium charged is, on an average, about fivepence per acre. Naturally, this amount varies according to the condition of soil and climate. Detailed provisions are made for the settlement of premiums, not only in the several Governments, but also in respect to local condition. Payment of those premiums may be made either in cash or corn. In the cases of compulsory insurance, the minimum yield per acre is taken at its normal basis. It is proposed that as soon as the scheme has been sanctioned, the compulsory insurance of peasants’ holdings shall continue for life.