NATIONAL ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13808, 20 January 1909, Page 7

NATIONAL ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

To the Editor of the "Tiniaru Herald." Sir.—While thanking you for devoting some space to this important question, and for the appreciative remarks

thereon in your loader of the 13th inst., kindly allow me space to answer one or two of the objections -raised in your article. 1 will pass over the dubbing of the proposal-as '•Christian ,>oeialism," which I am sure you do ■ not intend-to be contemptous, with tlie re miirk that to me it is a matter of indifference what name yon give -to any proposal. The vital question is: Is the proposal based on sound common sense 'i Does it adequately and fairly meet an admitted difficulty:-' It is a very bad habit of thoughtlo ,s politicians to denounce as socialism any proposal the justice of which they are unable to dispute. Hut Socialism has such a very wide meaning ranging from true co-operative effort .such as State .Railways, Post Office, Telegraphs, Friendly. Societies, Life and Fire Insurance, etc., to the revolutionary Socialism such as is preached by Tom Mann and others, which aims at destroying all individual effort and to equally reward the idle with the industrious, the inefficient with the competent, the. careless with the prudent; iha,t it is necessary when speaking of Socialism to define what class of it is meant. Nee'dlPss to say, most thinking men will agree that Socialism of the former type is necessary to the fulfilment of the needs of our economic system, -while in respect to the latter we shall have to be cast In a somew.hat different mould before it'will be generally accepted. 1 cannot agree with you that this proposal can m any way be regarded as an extension of our charitable aid laws. To legislate so that- all must contribute a. small but regular payment to a common fund with the understa'nding that the injured or their dependants shall receive substantial monetary compensation in case of accident, is no more charitable aid than the system under which our Friendly Societies are doing the same thing. The present system which compels one class (the employers) to provide , under certain eventualities for another class (the. 'employees) does bear some resemblance to charity, and uiay realise to some extent the law '• Bear ye one another's burdens,'-' notwithstanding that it mav j be under compulsion. But the pnijx.;.- ■ e.d system, as 1 haw already sho.in, >s almost its exact opposite. Your suggestion that the wilfully carelvss employer ,shou Id be penalised in some way should surely not be very difficult oi accomplishment, if present penalties are not sufficient. ,' ■ f You say that I have failed to..grasp the present difficulty over the iniuer.s' complaint. As. I,nave no means o± information other than what is available to all your readers, this is quite possible, but from my reading of the Press I gathered that the miners do not necessarily object to all medical examination. They do object—and i daiyisay they may be quite justified in doing so —to an examination by lne employers, which might be used very, prejudicially to their interests. But i should anticipate that a medical examination by the Government for the purpose of fairly adjusting a substantial benefit would not be open to the same objection. : But one would require the fullest local and other information before making any definite pronouncement on this question. It must be remembered that although we hope the present difficulty has happily reached a temporary settlement, it has not yet received parliamentary sanction, and it is open to doubt if Parliament would agree unconditionally to permanently continue to bear the burden of a benefit largely in excess of that provided by last year's' legislation, and it may yet be found necessary to provide a suitable modus vivehdi, which it seems to me would be, very difficult to find outside of' a State system., which system would involve : (a) Some contribution by tlic diseased, which also involves medical examination, or (b) Some contribution by the whole of the miners on somewhat the same principle as that on which the' disrated Kailway Employees were recently admitted to the full benefit of the Superannuation Scheme; or (c.) That the State should make some equiwlent concession in respect to all other industrise, —T am etc., J. AXSTFY.