POSITION AT AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 31

POSITION AT AUCKLAND.

AUCKLAND, January 10. It was thought that the Prime Minister's statement, published on Saturday, ia the effect that the State Accident Insur- : ance Apartment would take the risks as j regards pneumoconiosis, and issue policies | without medical examination,' had settled ! the mining trouble occasioned by clause 10 I of the new Workers' Compensation Act. It i appears, however, that there are still diffi- , cutties that prevent a- ep-eedy solution of < the trouble. Inquiries instituted on Saturday amongst the reprerentatives of coal and gold mining companies elicited tho reply in almost every instance : — " Matters are exactly as they were before the Prime Minister's stntemeiic " Further investigations proved that the situation is not relieved at all, the employers feeling | that very much more definite and reliable j information is necessary before thay can go any further in the direction of authoris- , ing work to be resumed in the mines, j The opinion in insurance circles seems to ( bo that it ought to be euriVient- to set ' both industries going again to know that the State has undertaken to give coveT against miners' complaint and to forgo | the medical examination. That this under- ] taking has not, however, led to that re- I suit is quite patent. I Owing to a determined reticence on the part of the majority of" the coal and gold | mining companies," it was difficult on j Saturday to arrive at the precise reasons why the deadlock should continue. It •was gathered that one or two important points are involved. In the first place, there- is the question of premiums. On the one hand there is an opinion that the State will not charge an extra rate, and on- the other there is a doubt as to whether it will, but an either case there is an uncertainty on the point that needs clearing up. The uncertainty that exists i 6 accentuated by the fact that, despite Sir Joseph" Word's reassuring message, the manager of the Auckland branch of th<? State Insurance Department (Mr J. W. Speight) had, up to closing time on Saturday, received no instructions. When seen by a Herald representative, Mr Speight would say no more than that he had nothing to Teport. It is understood that nothing will be definitely settled as to the details of what the State office will do until thi«

I Another point that is helping to keep back a settlement of the trouble is in connection with current insurance policies. Most of the companies concerned have their employees insured against accident 1 with other than the State Insurance office, and these policies have various periods to run. The companies naturally want to know, in addition to what premium the Government will charge, whether they are expected to let these policies be cancelled and reinsure with the State Department, both against accident and miners' complaint, or whether the State will issue policies to cover that disease only. There are several minor points at issue also. Summed up, the position is that neither employer nor employee quite knows how 4ie stands, and in consequence work will not be resumed in the coal mines on Monday as was at first thought likely. It is improbable that the situation as regards the gold mine* will be any different.