PRESS COMMENT.

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

PRESS COMMENT.

<Feox Ovr Own Cobrespoxdent ) WELLINGTON, January 10. The Government newspaper here adversely criticises the action of Ministers, and states that while the Government has been saying "No" with great emphasis for a week some explanation should be forthcoming for suddenly saying "Yes" to the miners' demand for insurance without medical inspection. The Times adds : " Failure to make a proper explanation places the Government in the position of ! being subjected to much hostile criticism. Can it be that the taxpayers are going to take for six months the risk that the Insurance Department will not accept owing to Parliament making a muddle of the Compensation Act? If this is so the miners have forced the Government out of its original position. If it is not so we should be told about it. In any case, we do not see why the decision of the Cabinet should be conveyed in such j a violent hurry to the Miners' Federation. ilt might be supposed that the mineowners would be the people to inform that policies would be issued without inspection, for it is they who have to pay the premiums, and it is they who are asking the men to submit to examination. If they found they could secure ' cover ' I without medical test they would give notice withdrawing the stipulation that the men would have to be examined, and the miners could go back to work as usual." The Dominion, under the heading " Another Surrender," says : — " The country will learn with amazement to-day that 'the Government has decided that the State Insurance Department will issue policies covering miners' risks w-thout requiring a preliminary medical examination. Were it not that Sir Joseph Ward himself suonlied the text of the message in which he has communicated this decision to t£e miners we should have found | it difficult to believe that the Government i had decided upon a course of action which was rejected as improper by Sir Joseph Ward and Mr Millar only a lew days ago, and which the leading newspapers, irrespective of their political views, united in saying could not be entertained. The Government has now decided to reverse i the decision which earned this applause. ! The department is to accept any kind of j risk without insisting on medical examinaI tion, and its funds will, be guaranteed against any results and loss by placing the burden on the unfortunate taxpayer. What defence the Government can put forward for utilising the public funds to make good the losses that may be incurred by ! misusing a State department in this fashion we are at a loss to imagine. The Post heads its article "A Deplorable Precedent," and says : — " On the face of it the method adopted by the Government for the settlement of the deadlock with which the mining industry was threatened is of very evil example." CHRISTCHURCH, January 10. ■ With regard to the Government's" action ; in connection with the mining crisis, the i Press remaiks that the reconstructed . Cabinet has made an inauspicious begin- | ning. At the very out&et of its career, ( with the ink hardly diy on the signatures of the new Ministers, it has executed a ; rightabout turn, which is equal to any ' previous performance of the kind that the Government has done for many yeaiv. A more painful exhibition of weakness has eiirely .=ekiom been given by a New Zealand Government. The position previously taken up by the Government was the only correct oi>e. The attitude of the mine-owners o 33 < i» insurance companies [ was absolutely justified by the circumI stances, and the men were "wholly in the wrong. The immediate conoequences of 1 the trouble were regrettable, but having I right on its side the Government should i have stuck firmly to its guns. Its action, 1 however, has shown that it is as weakkneed as its predece c sor, and equally able to eat its words and swallow its piinciples 1 whenever it thinks such performances ; desirable. If this is the effect of th* ; now blood in the Cabinet we are afiaid I the country may look forward to some queer legislation and still stranger adminiV 1 tration. The Times expre.^es the opinion that j there •will be very general surprise at the • decision of the Government in regard to 1 the trouble between the miners and the insurance companies. It is. possible that even the pi'omi?e of amending legislation I next 'session will not satisfy the workers, and the Government is in danger of pleasing no one by its offer to insure the men j without insisting upon a preliminary ! medical examination. After the positive statement that the department could not undertake the risk unless it knew the j extent of the liability, the decision of the 1 Cabinet "will certainly not be popularly approved, and the Prime Minister should take an early opportunity of explaining the Go\ernment's position.