QUESTION OF LEAD POISONING.

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

QUESTION OF LEAD POISONING.

! GREYMOUTH. January 6. ! As stated yesterday, the insurance companies have determined to insist on the j medical examination of all underground employees. This will, of course, include coal miners, and this proposal -will tend to accentuate an already critical situation. The State mine will not be affected, as it takes its own .insurance, as also does the Westport Coal Company. I Mr Semple, on being interviewed, said it showed that the employers were not so much concerned about " miners' complaint " as they were to introduce a general examination, which would extend to coal mines, where no pneumoconiosis is known. Ultimately, he thought, the i employers would desire an examination for all classes of labour. The coal mineis would never agree to such a proposal, which, if persisted in, would precipitate a disastrous situation, which would be felt all over New Zealand. The federation is now taking steps to prevent Newcastle coal being imported to fill the

orders of mines where work has ceased. The whole dispute, Mr Semple added, was brought on to bring about the disruption of the Miners' Federation by organised employers. Mr Semple stated j that as the Crown Law Officers held that ! the deadlock was neither a strike nor a lockout, any union assisting financially could not be fined for aiding or abetting.