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I -'.I...- ' 7 --_L 21eR "!"" ied se * ult : es | m 3u1 25, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1914. TAOMUDEN® |'=" 3 ' C( ATNON BILL | s GETS l l nnnme mc oi ooo -- ns 1 ' | $: | Legislature Almost at One on ! % Important Measure , | | =---------- MAY COME IN FORCE JAN. 1 | e surinee *./3 Liberals Urge Government to Hasten Its Enforcement--Genecral Demand { for the Bill--Slight Changes Likely | & 1 in Committee. | | | goas > ! } | i Workmen's compensation held the | centre of the stage in the l,egislatn.r(r * | vesterday. After seven years of wait-- ! ing on the part of the working classes | of the Province, the House has adopt-- '.-(1 the principle of an up-m-dam? '[mr-usurn. and the bill now goes inmi | the eecmmittee stage to be consgidered | | i in detail. ; t ! | _ While the leaders of both parties in | | the House agreed that the bill was of | isuch public importance that best re-' | sults could most probably be gecurt--1 !"d if all discussion was of a nhn-par-i i',is;m character, Mr. Rowell openly | | avowed his desire that this sh(mld: l 'fellow., as he considered the enact-- ; | ment of this legislation of pnramn'mt' importance to the workers.. But il! s } remained for Mr. Brewster to mtrn-; 'duce the party element, and seek to : discredit Mr: Rowell's attitude by do-! elaring that the Opposition leader had] not always entertained the high opin--| ion of Sir William Meredith that hpl had expressed during the afterngon. Mr. Elliott quickly turned the tables | on Mr. Brewster and showed that the position of the Liberal party was that they criticized the Government for de-- lay in 1911 and would offer the same criticism now if no legislation had| been forthcoming. ' Hon. Mr. Lucas did not add much | to the general explanation that hf'l made when the bill was introduced and given a first reading. The soc-, ond reading was preceded hy the for-- ; mal adoption of a resolution author--| izing the appropristion of $100,000 out of the consolidated revenue fund to the reserve fund required .by the act. Mr. Lucas did not know if this | would B6 "tufficient, in fact it was quite possiblée that it would 'be more.! PDate of Enforcement, | it | In moving the .second reading of | the workmen's compensation bill, | Hon, Mr. Lucas said he had made all! the observations of a general char-- acter b_efnro. but there was one point! of criticism he 'desired to remove, | This was that there was no date fixed for the|bringing of the bill into force. He remarked ~that it was hoped the bill might be brought into opera-- tion during the present year, though, of course, the Government would na-- turally 'act upon the reports of the (,'_ommlssxoners. However, to end any discusston--and:to fix a date when it would def:mitely come into forece he proposed in cominittee to introduce an amendment which would declare that In.any event it would come into | operation not later than January 1 i next, or at an earlier date, which the Government might by -- proclamation declare. He thought that for many| Eomrl k it should be brought into operation by Noyember 1. Mr. Rowell, comparing the bill with | the act as drafted by Sir William } Meredith, noticed a very > marked change in the amounts payable to the partially disabled class. It appeared to him t!mt in the draft bill the basis of benefit for partial disability was ttue difference between the carning capacity of the man before he sus-- __tained the injury and after. That ap-- |