H—ll

(4) Work done for Fijian Administration : Correction and verification work was -completed on four yard end measures. (c) Workers' Compensation Act, 1922 (1) The Workers' Compensation Amendment Act, 1947, was referred to in last year's report. The amendment altering the amounts of compensation payable came into force on Ist April, 1948. (2) During the year ended 31st March, 1949, the State Fire Insurance Office has •completed arrang'ements for handling the Employers' Liability Insurance Account, to which all employers' indemnity business will be transferred from private insurance companies (other than mutual insurance companies) as from Ist April, 1949. The rates of premiums payable to the Employers' Liability Insurance Account and the procedure for assessing premiums are set out in the Emplovers' Liability Insurance Regulations 1949 (Serial No. 1949/20). (3) The Compensation Court has had before it applications for exemption from the obligation to insure with the State Fire Insurance Office in the case of—(a) Contributors to the General Trust Fund established under the New Zealand Rules of Racing. (b) Education Boards and local authorities. (c) Eight mutual insurance companies and associations named in the Act. In dealing with these applications the Court has called on the Department to examine and report on the applications, and this has led to requests for various amendments in rules or articles of association which usually have been readily agreed to by the applicants. (4) Amending Legislation during 1948-49.—(i) Finance Act, 1948 : Section 30 of this statute extended the time for giving notice and commencing proceedings on claims arising out of the fire which destroyed the premises of J. Ballantyne and Co., Ltd., Ohristchurch, on 18th November, 1947. (ii) Tubercubsis Act, 1948: Section 23 of this statute makes special provision for compensation for workers who contract tuberculosis while employed or deemed to be employed by any Hospital Board or in any institution or service under the control of the Department of Health (including any public institution within the meaning of the Mental Defectives Act, 1911). The section is made applicable in certain circumstances to those who had already contracted the disease at the time of coming into force of the Act. (iii) Statutes Amendment Act, 1948. —Section 47 corrects'an anomaly in the Workers' Compensation Act, 1922, as to the method of assessing compensation for dependants consequent upon the death of a worker. Section 14 of the principal Act provided that the benefit under the insurance policy was to be excluded. Section 47 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1948, now provides for the exclusion of other benefits and is in harmony with section 7 of the Law Reform Act, 1936, as to damages recoverable under the Deaths by Accident Compensation Act, 1908. Section 11 —Administration and Staff (a) General The merger of the Labour Department and National Employment Service as the Xi Department of Labour and Employment," which formed part of the main theme of last year's report, can now be claimed to be complete and the new Department fully integrated. , The two sections of Head Office were able to come together in the one building during the year, but definite inconvenience will continue until necessary alterations in the layout of the building have been completed. Accommodation difficulties have

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