COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1536, 7 August 1901, Page 31

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

(By W. W. Tanner, M.H.R.)

In the "New Zealand .Times" of Manday, July 23th, 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 i 3 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 employ* ed in the contract was killed and his relatives, finding the contractor a mao* of straw, came on the owner of the property and recovered *£4oo from him. Tip building society from which the mian had obtained the loan on his farm took the balance of his *£soo, with the re* suit that he was left penniless. Cases 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 Committe 0 t® have the Act amended if possible.'"

It is remarkable that the Workers' Compensation Act only came into operation on June 7th last and Mr R. Smith was speaking at Palmerston on July 26ch, about seven weeks after. No one' seems to know anything of the incident except Mr R t 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 dates, an<B the locality in which this incident occurred. It must have been between June 7th and July 26th of the present year, s» it ought not to be a tax on his memory. As a delegate to, and speaker at, a con* ference, he is probably aware of the importance of his statements, and abov® all other things the necessity of accuracy. I await Mr R. Smith's reply.