than he thought, and that he cannot earn as much as he thought he could. The employer may wish to pay less, or to stop the weekly payment altogether, because the workman is better in health and can earn more than was expected. In either case, unless they can agree, the question must be settled by the Court or by arbitration. The workman in such a case should see that his payment is not stopped altogether. If he is still suffering in the least degree from the effects of the accident, he is entitled to an order for at any rate id. a week. This keeps his right alive; and later, if necessary, he can get the id. a week increased.

The weekly payment awarded to an injured workman, or a lump sum paid instead of a weekly payment (after six months) cannot be taken for debts.

Memorandum of the Amount of Compensation

Obtained.

When an accident has happened, and the amount of compensation has been fixed, either by agreement, or the committee, or the County Court judge, or the arbitrator, a memorandum must be sent to the Registrar of the County Court for the district in which the person getting compensation lives. It must contain the decision or agreement arrived at, and will be entered in a special register without any fee. When registered, the memorandum can be enforced like a County Court judgment, that is, by execution against the goods of the person liable. It must be signed by the arbitrator, or by the chairman and secretary of the committee, or by both parties, according as the case was decided. If not thus registered it cannot be so easily enforced.

Other Regulations.

When a workman who is killed by an accident has made a will, the compensation must be paid by the employer to the executor of the will. If there is no will, it will be paid to the administrator of the workman's property.

The relatives to whom compensation is payable under the new law are entitled to administration in the following order: (i) Wife or husband; (ii) child; (iii) grandchild; (iv) father; (v) mother; (vi) brothers or sisters, or grandfather or grandmother.

The committee or arbitrator, when they find that an employer must pay compensation, may order the money to be invested in the Post Office Savings Bank. It would then be entered in the name of the Registrar of the County Court within whose district the deceased workman lived.

The money may be invested in the purchase of an annuity from the National Debt Commissioners; or it may be paid into the Post Office Savings Bank, although the sum is larger than the amount usually allowed in the Bank.

When the money is invested in the Post Office Savings Bank, it cannot be paid out unless the County Court judge or the Treasury sign a form authorizing it to be paid out.

Although a person who is entitled to money paid as compensation has already an account at the Savings Bank, another account may be opened in order to pay in the compensation money.

If an employer dies before a workman has obtained compensation, his executors or administrators must pay it out of his estate.

In case the employer becomes bankrupt before payment of the compensation awarded, and has insured himself against the Act, the insurers must pay the amount to the workman or his relatives.

This applies also where the employer makes any arrangement with his creditors, and to a company which is being wound up.

Which Act to Choose.

The Employers' Liability Act applies to manual laborers only, whereas the Compensation Act applies to all persons engaged in certain trades, whether as manual laborers or otherwise.

An action under the Employers' Liability Act, 1880, can only be maintained:

(i) If the workman is engaged in manual labor at an employment to which the Act applies;

(ii) If the workman is injured or killed in any of the five ways mentioned in the Act of 1880 (see p. 2).

(iii) If notice has been given within the proper time.

As the workman or his relatives will be certain in most cases of some compensation under the Act of 1897, actions under the Act of 1880 should be avoided except in cases of very serious injuries, and very clear liability of the employer. The reasons for this are

(i) The difficulty of getting workmen to give evidence against their employer is great ;

(ii) The expenses are considerable, as the costs of the employer may have to be paid by the workman if he loses his case;

(iii) The amount of the damages which the judge or jury will award is uncertain;

(iv) The employer is not liable if the workman was partly to blame for the accident, or knew of the dangerous state of the machinery or plant. And an action cannot be brought for injuries caused by a fellow servant.

But as the highest amount of compensation which a workman's relatives can get under the Compensation Act is only 300-and this is only where they were entirely kept by the workman killedit may sometimes be well to claim under the Act of 1880.

He can

It will be remembered that although the case should be lost, yet if the judge finds that the employer is liable to pay compensation under the Act of 1897, he may fix the amount to be paid. only do so when asked by the injured person or his relatives, who should, to save further trouble and expense, always ask for it. The expenses of the employer, or part of them, may have to be paid by the relatives if their case is not successful.

In what cases ought such an action to be started?

Now, 300, the highest amount of compensation under the Act of 1897, means that the workman was earning on the average £22

week at the time of his death. The highest amount under the Act of 1880 is three years' average wages of a worker in the same trade, grade, and district, as the worker killed. Therefore, an action under the Act of 1880 should only be started if the workman's wages were at least 2 10s. a week; and even then, as the full amount of three years' wages, viz., 390, may not be obtained, it is only when the employer or his foreman is clearly and seriously to blame, that the expense and uncertainty of such an action should be risked.

Where the workman is injured he can, under the Compensation Act, only get at most a weekly amount of £1. This is liable to alteration, and after six months the employer may pay a lump sum instead of continuing the weekly payment. Now, I a week is only to be paid if the injured workman's wages are at least £2. It may, therefore, be said that actions under the Act of 1880 for injuries should only be started

(i) if the workman's wages were 2 10s. a week;

(ii) if the action is almost certain to be successful because of the employer or his foreman being clearly and seriously to blame; and (iii) if the workman's injuries are very serious and likely to continue for some considerable period or for life.

These conditions are, of course, arbitrary; but probably a judge and jury would be influenced very much by calculating what a man could get under the new law. But, if a counter prejudice, caused by the injuries and the circumstances of the accident, can be raised in their minds, they may be inclined to penalize the employer.

If (ii) and (iii) are not present in the facts, the limit of wages in (i) should be raised to £3.

General Advice.

The Trade Union secretary and members of a workman's family may now appear at an arbitration under the Act, as has been mentioned on p. 8. They should, therefore, obtain the names and addresses, at least, of those present at an accident. If those persons would write down a short account of what they recollect of the matter it would be very valuable in the event of subsequent proceedings, whether under the Compensation Act or otherwise.

In cases of permanent injury, such as the loss of an eye, or a hand or leg, where compensation will be required for life, it will generally be wise to employ a solicitor.

TEXT OF THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, 1900. (Which extends the principal Act to Agricultural Laborers.)

1.-(1) From and after the commencement of this Act, the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, shall apply to the employment of workmen in agriculture by any employer who habitually employs one or more workmen in such employment.

(2) Where any such employer agrees with a contractor for the execution by or under that contractor of any work in agriculture, section four of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, shall apply in respect of any workman employed in that work as if that employer were an undertaker within the meaning of that Act.

Provided that, where the contractor provides and uses machinery driven by mechanical power for the purpose of threshing, ploughing, or other agricultural work, he, and he alone, shall be liable under this Act to pay compensation to any workman employed by him on such work.

(3) Where any workman is employed by the same employer mainly in agricultural but partly or occasionally in other work, this Act shall apply also to the employment of the workmen in such other work.

The expression agriculture" includes horticulture, forestry, and the use of land for any purpose of husbandry, inclusive of the keeping or breeding of live stock, poultry, or bees, and the growth of fruit and vegetables.

2.-This Act may be cited as the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1900, and shall be read as one with the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, and that Act and this Act may be cited together as the Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1897 and 1900.

3.-This Act shall come into operation on the first day of July One Thousand Nine Hundred and One.

TEXT OF THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, 1897.

1.-(1.) If in any employment to which this Act applies personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment is caused to a workman, his employer shall, subject as hereinafter mentioned, be liable to pay compensation in accordance with the First Schedule to this Act.

(2.) Provided that :

(a.) The employer shall not be liable under this Act in respect of any injury which does not disable the workman for a period of at least two weeks from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed ;

(6.) When the injury was caused by the personal negligence or wilful act of the employer, or of some person for whose act or default the employer is responsible, nothing in this Act shall affect any civil liability of the employer, but in that case the workman may, at his option, either claim compensation under this Act, or take the same proceedings as were open to him before the commencement of this Act; but the employer shall not be liable to pay compensation for injury to a workman by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment both independently of and also under this Act, and shall not be liable to any proceedings independently of this Act, except in case of such personal negligence or wilful act as aforesaid;

(c.) If it is proved that the injury to a workman is attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of that workman, any compensation claimed in respect of that injury shall be disallowed."

(3.) If any question arises in any proceedings under this Act as to the liability to pay compensation under this Act (including any question as to whether the employment is one to which this Act applies), or as to the amount or duration of compensation under this Act, the question, if not settled by agreement, shall, subject to the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act, be settled by arbitration, in accordance with the Second Schedule to this Act.

(4.) If, within the time hereinafter in this Act limited for taking proceedings, an action is brought to recover damages independently of this Act for injury caused by any accident, and it is determined in such action that the injury is one for which the employer is not liable in such action, but that he would have been liable to pay compensation under the provisions of this Act, the action shall be dismissed; but the court in which the action is tried shall, if the plaintiff shall so choose, proceed to assess such compensation, and shall be at liberty to deduct from such compensation all the costs which, in its judgment, have been caused by the plaintiff bringing the action instead of proceeding under this Act.

In any proceeding under this sub-section, when the Court assesses the compensation it shall give a certificate of the compensation it has awarded and the directions it has given as to the deduction for costs, and such certificate shall have the force and effect of an award under this Act.

(5.) Nothing in this Act shall affect any proceeding for a fine under the enact ments relating to mines or factories, or the application of any such fine, but if any such fine, or any part thereof, has been applied for the benefit of the person injured, the amount so applied shall be taken into account in estimating the compensation under this Act.

2. (1.) Proceedings for the recovery under this Act of compensation for an injury shall not be maintainable unless notice of the accident has been given as soon as practicable after the happening thereof and before the workman has voluntarily left the employment in which he was injured, and unless the claim for compensation with respect to such accident has been made within six months from the occurrence of the accident causing the injury, or, in case of death, within six months from the time of death. Provided always that the want of or any defect or inaccuracy in such notice shall not be a bar to the maintenance of such proceedings, if it is found in the proceedings for settling the claim that the employer is not prejudiced in his defence by the want, defect, inaccuracy, or that such want, defect, or inaccuracy was occasioned by mistake or other reasonable cause.

(2.) Notice in respect of an injury under this Act shall give the name and address of the person injured, and shall state in ordinary language the cause of the injury and the date at which it was sustained, and shall be served on the employer, or, if there is more than one employer, upon one of such employers

(3.) The notice may be served by delivering the same to or at the residence or place of business of the person on whom it is to be served.

(4.) The notice may also be served by post by a registered letter addressed to the person on whom it is to be served at his last known place of business, and if served by post shall be deemed to have been served at the time when the letter containing the same would have been delivered in the ordinary course of post, and in proving the service of such notice it shall be sufficient to prove that the notice was properly addressed and registered.

(5.) Where the employer is a body of persons corporate or unincorporate, the notice may also be served by delivering the same at, or by sending it by post in a registered letter addressed to the employer at the office, or, if there be more than one office, any one of the offices of such body.

3.-(1.) If the Registrar of Friendly Societies, after taking steps to ascertain the views of the employer and workmen, certifies that any scheme of compensation, benefit, or insurance for the workmen of an employer in any employment, whether or not such scheme includes other employers and their workmen, is on the whole not less favorable to the general body of workmen and their dependants than the provisions of this Act, the employer may, until the certificate is revoked, contract with any of those workmen that the provisions of the scheme shall be substituted for the provisions of this Act, and thereupon the employer shall be liable only in accordance with the scheme, but, save as aforesaid, this Act shall apply notwithstanding any contract to the contrary made after the commencement of this Act.

(2.) The registrar may give a certificate to expire at the end of a limited period not less than five years.

(3.) No scheme shall be so certified which contains an obligation upon the workmen to join the scheme as a condition of their hiring.

(4.) If complaint is made to the Registrar of Friendly Societies by or on behalf of the workmen of any employer that the provisions of any scheme are no longer on the whole so favorable to the general body of workmen of such employer and their dependants as the provisions of this Act, or that the provisions of such scheme are being violated, or that the scheme is not being fairly administered, or that satisfactory reason exists for revoking the certificate, the Registrar shall examine into the complaint, and, if satisfied that good cause exists for such complaint, shall, unless the cause of complaint is removed, revoke the certificate.

(5.) When a certificate is revoked or expires any moneys or securities held for the purpose of the scheme shall be distributed as may be arranged between the employer and workmen, or as may be determined by the Registrar of Friendly Societies in the event of a difference of opinion.