THE INSURANCE BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3390, 4 December 1911, Page 5

THE INSURANCE BILL.

THOUSANDS OF PROTESTS.

AMENDMENTS CONSIDERED INADEQUATE.

(United Press Association—Convright.) LONDON, Dec. 1.

Members of the House of Commons have received 528,000 protests against the Insurance Bill. The General Federation of Trades Unions has strongly protested against separate administrations of the insurance fund in Scotland, Wales,- and Ireland. The leaders fear disintegration of trade unionism by encouraging Scottish and Welsh committees to insist on controlling their own business.

'FRENZIED CAREER OF LEGISLATION. OPINION OF LORD LANSDOWNE. (Received Dec. 3, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2. A conference of two hundred hospitals carried a resolution that the existing treatment cannot be maintained if the income is diminished, due to the Insurance Bill. 15

Sir Henry Burdett estimates that the voluntary hospitals will lose half their incomes. The newspapers indicate that the Lords will pass the Insurance Bill unamended, thus declining the responsibility of going into details. It is expected that they will reject the Naval Prize Bill, embracing the Declaration of London, on the ground that it is too important to be rushed through. Lord Lansdowne, addressing twelve hundred and forty delegates of the Liberal Unionist Council at Derby, said the Government embarked on a frenzied career of revolutionary legislation. Having broken the Constitution they were forcing revolutionary measures, of which the country had not approved. They were guilty of gross, intolerable usurpation of power, he said, and scattered public money lavishly, multiplied appointments, and created a bureaucracy more numerous and arrogant than the country had ever known. He believed the principle of contributory insurance just and wise, but the Bill alarmed many important interests. Lord Lansdowne combatted Home Rule, especially federal, and said Mr. Birrell had been suggesting a federation ultimately to include the Dominions. It was absurd to think that great Dominions would come in at the tail of the hunt, into a scheme prepared to suit Mr. Redmond’s dictation. The first duty of the Unionists was to restore the Constitution and continue Mr. Balfour’s Irish policy.