The Herald of Wales and Monmouthshire Recorder. — 1885-06-13 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

PULSORY NATIONAL INSURANCE.  The select committee of the House of Common, appointed to inquire into the question of National In. stiranoe met on Monday for the first time, Mr. E. Stanhope presiding. The first witness examined was the :Rev, Canon Blookley, who stronfly recommended compulsory Stational insurance in consequence of the effect al our poor • law relief system upon the morals and habits of the nation, and, secondly, because et the uncertainty of many of the efforts made at lie present time by the thrifty portion of our people Ile guard themselves against poverty. The poor-law Bued • tendency to encourage improvidence, inasmuch slit taught the young that they might take the chance being improvident with the certainty that other wouldeventually provide for them. In our r, our poor-law system being an exceptional one - from those of other countries, the amount of and the cost of pauperism were relatively -.‘r in proportion to the population of this - lee. In a word, it was obvious that as could do without a system such - do better without it than we presumption was reasonable that we Ts our course with advantage. Witness to thew the working of the friendly iting out that those large and successful Me only provided as a general rule for do portion of our working classes. Hie a that every person should be bound the sge of 18 years to subscribe a sum SIO  people Country, liffertnfirl frozy7tem  couutriee.  other ours, the  couniriee  clunks  went  pointing bodies  'better  after  ina-ti;ln7enta,  or in one sum, towards • and pension fund. This £lO would a individual when prevented by sickness ; his or her usual wages • sum of Bs. • 70 years of age, and after that age • the sick pay, and a pension for life of His proposal was that the fund should and distributed by the Post Office; be invested under the authority of a if desired by the contributors themrestricted in their power of investment 'arliamentary directions. Small as was contribution it was calculated that abundantly sufficient. For the purposes , he divided the nation into two those people who had means anti .o had not. The money would be . the former by the usual method :-collector, and in the latter case grit employers to deduct the morels es in cases where it MSB not paid valuePost-office. Such a scheme must be re. He did not wish to attach any further to the State than that of simply passing which would be necessary to keep of the scheme on a sound basis. The paid his money into the fund would no the State responsible, but only to the ving up its enactments, so that the future old be compelled to keep up such paykeep the system sound. There must re of things be a certain amount of lingering. Frauds were committed now y societies by persons obtaining pay they were not entitled, but every t itself solvent either by prepunishing the fraud. They were :ulate for a certain amount of fraud, appear that in a national scheme tiers fraud than existed in the friendly lecieties. He thought there should he lees fraud use the national insurance would never I Se- a week in sickness, and the temptaof Bs. a week to a fraudulent pereon, old not be sufficient to induce him to Lindero the restrictions it involved. He would not be Is to do other work, he would be excluded from e public-house, and, if discovered, be would be verely punished. He did not see that his plan, though based on complusion, would interfere with Listing friendly societies at all. His proposal was secure all the young people, and if enacted on the of January next they would probably not 11 a single member of a friendly eociety. Young; there would still continue to join friendly societies e there were a great many things which they which National In-urance would not touch, besides that they insured a much larger sum in than National Insurance would do.—The  ear  natil  a week. paid it  sh,;iild  elected  but speciul  P!rlismen_„!ary  Prot°lied would 1).  scheme  cumely ' rho  people  from  would  the into  wages_ ‘ the '  finances 'A who y hold  Linji  de aa 1 the 'and  would  nature  !rie.nclly  whlcl;  to a did ' b..  cslctilate  more  ceed Sion c would tall the able to Øe pub vrel though uch embs 131113 d bosh ckuess mmittee sentity triment ring  adjourned.  A female inmate of the Mater Mieericordim HoeDublin, has committed suicide by drinking a '`v of laudanum.  The Madras Government, at the suggestion of Director of Agriculture, pr poses to try an expent on a large scale in tobacco growing End Tin the Godavery district. Tobacco grows well many parts of Madras and Triohinopoly, and monads cigars have already become known beyond ashore, of India. The commercial value of the if, however, suffers from deficient curing. It is w proposed that the leaf should be "shade-dried' that the services of a professional curer should be aired. There seems to be every reason for expecting mom of the experiment.  aDcoii‘is  Talks through our Telephone. (By "Plain Dealer" in the Swansea Herald.)  MANISA RaabeOß