WORKERS’ COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4467, 21 September 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

(By E. Smith', Pahiatua). Some time ago Air 'lanuer, the ‘ hon meiiioer 101* Avon, ;que#woneu' tne f truih ot a statement maim oy me ire compensation tor acctuent/- at the cbmerence ui ; tne i' timers' Onion helti at t'aimersion: last montu.- Mr ‘banner wrote a letre- to’ tne •UNeW Heaiand 'times" hist, ana then what I uiideMtooa to be a private letter to myseii, stating that he and many more wouid be. pleased ir 1 would furnish par ticuiars concerning a compensation ease quoted by pae at the Palmerston Con lerence. 1 replied to his letter in tne •■Times,’' and also to his.privets letter. The latter, mind you, never intended for publication, otnerwise 1 '.would have re lerred Mr Tanner lo my reply in the “Times." In,my public and private let. ter 1 frankly, admitted -that 1 only gave the case as told to me, ,and if I was mis informed that I would, willingly apo.ogise and own up t tbat I wag had, but being at the time laid tip with influenza, I asked Mr Tanner to give me time to make inquiries re the truth or otherwise of the caae, but, instead, what did he do ? The : Labour 'member for ' Avon; thinking a* he called it. that he had me .cornered, published my private letter, and again wrote to the “Times" stating that 1 fell in; that it was a fairy tale and a,con coded yarn of my own, and a hollow one at that; that no such lease ever occurred, and could not happen without .coming before the Arbitration Court, and that it wag a nitiful poeition -and explanation from*one appointed as a delegate to a conference —when fairly >. cornered; , and in sarcastic sympathy, . finished np that part of his letter by stating that such a humiliating position' might guide me to be more careful in the future. . Now, is not that beautiful advice, coining from a man xho ought to have known all the time that every word which I uttered concerning the case quoted at Palmer eton was absolutely true. The i principal in the case was a brother tradesman of Ms own. a boot and shoe trimmer, r of Welljneion, and one of the leading union men of the city. The ease "‘did come before the Arbitration Court and as

stated in Palmerston, -64,00 compensation was awarded. I therefore ask 1 space to quota the case in full, which Mr Tanner will find word for word in a. leading article in the “Mercantile and Bankruptcy Gazette,” June 26th. 1901, and here it

is Andrew Jackson; boot trimmer, of Wellington, one of the leading union men there, after many* years-of hard saving, accumulated .£2OO. This money he spent . in buying a section, on which he intend* ed to build a house. The lowest tenderer was a man of the journeyman builder type, who took the Job for about JESO less than it was worth. When the work was pretty well finished, two men were nailing up spouting on a jerry built sort of scaffold,, when a Wellington nor-westor gave it a shaking. Some of the boards .flew off, the two men jumped over to the one side, and down the whole thing went. Both, were seriously hurt, one dangerously and normanently injured, as will bo apparent from the fact that the Arbitration Court awarded JMOO to them hy way of com* nensation. The builder could not pay. Jackson had borrowed-JB2OO from a build, ing society, all of which had boon disburs* ed as progress payments during tho course of the work. The Court directed* that the f land should he sold, house and all. and when this wag done, it brought, after payment of charges, just JE42O. Tim men. therefore, got their money, the building society received JE2O in lieu of their JB2OO, and Jacksou, of course, lost his land. Since this untoward event happened, he has* changed his opinion about the desirability of labour legislation. He brought the facts of the case before the Trades and Labour Council, and suggested that the union should subscribe the i money, ; i but up to the present they declined upon the ground that it is against the principle* of labour to subscribe anything to anyone. The Council, however, promised to try and get a clause inserted in the Act, that the land or' houses of any.union man should not be liable to bo charged under the * Workmen's Compensation Act, bat that the amount of compensation: should under 1 '■ such circumstanoes b* recoverable from the master builders as a whole, if they were federated, and if not, from the Employers’ Association. ■ What price that concocted yarn of min* now? - In future I should, advie* Mr , Tanner to be* better posted ,in such nib tors es the above, if he rqslly did not know , it, which I doubt very much for such * a champion of labour legislation must have known it; and any time that Ifr Tanner wishes I can quote vary much worse capes than the above; but aa far as the Palmerston case quoted is concerned Z am now don*.