HUMANE AND LIBERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10761, 8 May 1911, Page 4

HUMANE AND LIBERAL.

A CREAT MfTTGANT OF CIVILISED EVILS. [lsv Ei.uriuc Tklkorapii—Copyuhmit.] (Pr:i>. PiiEss Association'.) Received May 7, at 5.5 p.m. . London, May G. 'J'lic Groat Western and London and North Western railways employ -20! >.<!()() hands, and .sickness insurance will cost them Cloll.OOU a year. Typists, bank clerks, and domestic :-i-rvah!.s arc included, and mothers of illegitimate ehildreji are lo . receive a maternity allowance. .Mr Lloyd-George, interviewed, states tlial he is deluged with telegrams of congratulation, the younger Tories being particularly favorable to his invalidity and unemployment scheme. while Sir Joseph Ward has written ex-prcs-.ing profound admiration of the scheme. .Mr Lloyd-George added that it was no small tribute to the scheme to receive the approbation of the colony which had taken so heroic a lead in thi,s form of social legislation;" Received May 8, at ft a.m. London. May 8. Mr Lloyd-George, in an interview, said that 30 per cent, of pauperism was due to sickness, hence, if patients could be prevented from becoming chronic invalids and rescued from the grip of the poor law the present cost of pauperism would be largely diverted and more effectively utilised. The Bill would affect 270,000 domestics in London, whereof 250,000 were females. Women workers who marry uninsured men will be allowed to rejoin upon widowhood, even if over the age of ■ r i6 ; and men who rise above 60s per week will :be allowed to remain members if they pay their employeers' 3d in addition to their own 4d weekly. •

Messrs Harlaud and Wolff's officials state that the scheme will cost their firm' £12.500 annually, and that wages must therefore be reduced or prices increased.

: The Spectator fears that malingering both as regards sickness and unemployment is likely to be stimulated.