The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-04-07 00:00:00

t'kgotourbage Obserbtr

SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1888.

MASTER AND MAN.

TITS most absorbing and impor'aint measure
which will occupy the attention of Imperial
Parliament durinv the session now resumed
after the brief Eastertide recess will be Mr.
Ititehie's Bill for the rearralgemant, :of
Local Government, the proposals of which
are just being sharply debated in public
meetings and at Courts of Quarter Sesssions
throughout the country. The Government
Railway Rates Bill, which Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach alluded to at Bristol on Tues-
day, will also challenge and receive a good
deal of the attention of members; but when
Mr. Goschen'e Bridget has been finally dis-
posed of, and the two hills just specified
have been fully discussed, there will, it is
hoped, still be time for the examination of
other schemes of legislative reform of general
interest, not the lease momentoes of which
is the measure to be taken in hand by Mr.
Matthews, for the reconstruction of the law
is regards Employers' Liability. The Homo
6e,cretary's Bill has beets intr3dured and
printed, and is its provisions will affect a
very large proportion of the community,
they should be very closely scanned. Mr.
Matthews is not essaying to improve or
amend the Act of 1880 concerning the same
matter, he rather seeke to sweep away the
existing law entirely and substitute in its
place a complete code based on experience
gained during the eight years past. A blot
on the working of the old act, infinitely
better for the employed though it has been
than no act at all, was the loophole leit
whereby workmen might coarractthemselves
out of the benefits allowed by law. Thus
unprincipled laboar dealers might make it a
condition, on engaging men, that theyShoald
sign an ,undertaking of a very one-aided
nature, the effect of which was to absolve
their mfister from any payments which
might otherwise become due in case of mis-
hap. Mr. Matthews proposed to make void
any such improper contract as this unless an
equitable alternative system of insurance has
been arranged, whereby the workman's
position is rendered secure. In exchange
, hr any indemnity he may give, under pres-
sure oriotherwise, to the master, the man, in
ease of accident, is to hay. oompensation
from a fund of the master's maintenance, or
guaranteed by him, equal to the amount the
Employers' Liabiity Act would entitle him
to. Another noticeable point is that Mr
Matthews leeks to make the maximum
amount of compensation payable in respect
of injary'or death either £l5O or an equiva-
lent of the man's estimated earnings for the
three preceding years, whichever amouut
may be the larger. This provision will be
one which will recommend itself to those, in
receipt of`very small salaries ; .though it is
much to be 'donbted whether those who
largely employ low labour will admire the
clause. The consequence will be, should
this part of the schemobecome law, &greater
substitution ths.n prftent of mechanical
powt- r fe7 unskilled mutual ; fur it is
the cht-a2 and unintelligent hand who is
likeliest t. blunder into serious accident
Such a • esn.lt would not be an uninized evil,
for met, would thereby be driven to make
tla•m,Rtves expert in some opecations the
seo.omplishment of which
*require at least
a modier.rn of directing brain as well as the
mere muscular eTertion which machinery
can eaily supplant. The " woikman" of
the new bill is woll-defined. He does not
include the riieuit or domestic servant, nor
the clerk or a,gen ; but, unlike as under the
id A.ut. comprises the seaman, and "every
person employed in or about a public con-
veyance by land or in or about a vessel
engaged in inland navigation as if he were a
workman." In the case of the seaman there

is to be no compensation for injury sustained
elsewhere than in e home port if the mishap
do not arise from a defect of the ship, tackle,
machinery, or equipments which shall have
- existed when the vessel last sailed from some
place in the United Kingdom. Notice of an
injury, to be valid for purpose of recovering
compensation, has now to be given within
six weeks of the occurrence. Mr. Matthew'
seeks co enlarge the legal period to three
months, a very valuable prorilion, for it is
nc.t every accident the effects ,f which de-
velop and aro fully apparent within the time
now allowed for making claims. The Home
Secretary also proposes to look more
sharply than hitherui after the 'gulp coo-
tractor, and iiring him further within tl,so
pale of the lax of recompense at far as re-
gards injury or loss to tke workmen ha.
employs, when inch daroge has orison from
Oka sub-contractor's shortcomings This is
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