COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4426, 5 August 1901, Page 6

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS.

(By W. W. Tanner, M.H.E.) In the "New Zealand .Times’* of Monday, July 29th, 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’ £ompensatioa Act of 1900 came in for some adverse criticism from some of the speakers, and the following quotation is cut from your report: “Mr E. 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 hie relatives, finding the contractor a man of straw, came on the owner of the property and recovered -C4OO from him. The building society from which the young man 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 Committee to have the Act amended if possible.* *’ It is remarkable that the Workers’ Compensation Act only came into operation on June 7th last and Mr E. Smith was speaking at Palmerston on July 26th, about seven weeks after. No one seems to know anything of the incident except Mr E. 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 E. Smith kindly supply the names, the dates, and the locality in which this incident occurred. Ib must have been between June 7th and July 26th of the present year, so 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 above all other things the necessity of accuracy. I await Mr E. Smith's reply.