INSURANCE CO.S' POSITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 29

INSURANCE CO.S' POSITION.

AUCKLAND, January 6. A rather startling statement of the I position as it is regarded from an insurance point of view was given to a press representative to-day by the manager :of a. leading iimuanco company. " The feeling of the insurance companies," he eaid, "is that clau&e 10 of the Workers' j Compensation Act is ambiguous. The comi panics aro afraid that if l hey exiend policies which were held oil December 31 , last to cover the new act, without making j provision for the medical examination ot the miners, whether free from disease or not, they might saddle themselves with the liability of those suffering from pneurnoconiosis, or miners' disease, in any form. They might, for instance, find themselves liable for men so diseased from ' the accumulation of long yoors, perhaps contracted in some coi:utiy outside New Zealand. In view of th s f«nihia;uity in the act as to whether the employers would or would not be liable in respect to the men who are found after January 1 to have the disease, and in ihe absence of any clear statement by the act that its i provisions wo aid only apply *o men who contracted the disease after January 1, the companies found it their du*y to takesteps to ascertain who \ver*> free from and who were affected by the disease. The net point is this," h-j tailored. "Having determined what men are free j from tho disease, the "n*vTa.-'a com- ' panics have expressed wil!iug»i'';3 to ex- | tend their policies under the ne-v act, but the feeling is held that as soon as ParI liament meets, the provision f?e<tiing with i pneumoconiosis will have to J-e teiaovd • from the act. If Pailiameut does not delete this provision my con. puny will • cease doing mining business altoL-e-ths.!-, and that course will probably bo followed . by other accident insurance companies. ' The lowest the insurance companies would j be justified in charging mine owners under j the, new act would be no les-s than 15 I guineas per cent. In fact, I am so afraid ! of the f.ir-reaching effects of the act as 1 it now stands that even at 20 per cent, i I would be afraid to undertake the whole 1 of the mining business of New Zealand."