Name Of Mine On Which Last Employed
Wallsend Colliery, Westralia CM, Amalgamated Collieries, Collie, WA

Submitted by
Moya Sharp - Admin

Cause of Death
Mine Accidents

Other Information
West Australian Sunday Times, Sunday 27 May 1900, page 9
Compulsory Insurance,
WORKING MEN INSURE THEIR EMPLOYERS. A HEARTLESS SYSTEM. THRIFT AS AN ENGINE OF OPPRESSION.
On Friday afternoon last the editor of the SUNDAY TIMES received the following letter :

"Sir,-Will you kindly allow me space in your valuable paper to tender my heartfelt thanks to the collier and employees of the Westralian Wallsend Colliery for their many kind expressions of sympathy, also for the way they have manfully assisted in getting up subscriptions for me in the hour of need. By their kindness it will enable me to get medical advice and attendance for my little girl, who has had to stand aside through reverse of circumstances that compel me to work six days out of seven for the mere necessaries of life. I would like also to draw attention to the unfeeling attitude of the Accident Insurance Company, who, because I refused to sign papers exonerating the Wallsend Colliery Co. from all blame, declined to give me the 50 pounds of an insurance which covered my husband's life, and who are still holding it, though it's seven months since the accident occurred which caused my husband's death.

This 50 pounds I was supposed to receive at, death. As they knew, my straitened circumstances, I think it very hard and unfeeling on the society's part. Again thanking the Coal miners' Association and apologising for troubling you
-l am, D. KESWICK.

The meaning of the latter portion of this document was not altogether clear to us, so we got an explanation from Mrs. Keswick to the effect that I her late, husband was insured in - the company referred to for £50, and that according to her story Mr. Farquhar, the local manager, had refused to pay her the amount of her policy unless she would guarantee that no action should be taken against the Westralia Wallsend, in which event he offered £100. This statement seemed so strange to us that we set further inquiries on foot, and have now arrived at the actual facts. Mrs. Keswick, it must be stated, is an ordinary working man's wife, with a considerable family, and has no knowledge whatever of commercial affairs or of insurance. Hence the mistake in her epistle as printed above.

The Mr. Farquhar referred to is the manager in Perth of the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation Ltd. On inquiry at the office in Princes' Buildings, we found that Mrs. Keswick does not hold a policy in this company, and so has no claim what-ever upon lt. The Westralia Wallsend, however, has a general policy from the Guarantee Corporation covering all sorts of accidents. Now we shall see how this policy is paid for, and a pleasant revelation it is. It appears that the man Keswick, before his death, was induced, or. compelled, to join a "benevolent" benefit society promoted by the philanthropists who run the Westralia Wallsend. Under this "society" his employers were to deduct so much per week from his wages, in return for which they agreed to give him £2 10s. per week in the event of disablement or his widow £50 down in case of his death. Now mark what follows. The whole of the moneys collected from men like Keswick on this colliery went to pay the premium for a general policy insuring the company not the men, remember against accidents. In other words, the men paid the premiums, and the company got the policy, and then after the men paying the whole. cost of insurance they are dependent upon the company's generosity as to whether they get a solitary copper. But there is yet another feature of this System to be exposed. In Mr. Keswick's case, when her husband was killed, she was referred by the manager of the colliery to the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation. The manager, according to her statement, confirmed by one of his subordinates, refused to pay her the £50 unless she signed a document indemnifying the Wallsend people from any further claim in respect of the Employers' Liability Act or at common law. The widow finds that she cannot compel the Corporation to pay, and the Wallsend people wont. So that she, or any other victim, stands a chance of being badgered into signing away her legal rights before she can use a right which her husband- poor, thrifty man he had bought and paid for. To summarise : The brutal system of compulsory benefit now existent in W. A enables an employer to insure himself at the expense of his employees ; it enables him further to evade his legal liabilities : it enables him to compel the very people who have paid his premiums to abandon their legal rights in consideration of getting-not a favour, but what they have already paid too dearly for. We have no hesitation in denouncing such a system as an abomination ; the very thrift of the workman is made an engine of oppression ; and the practice virtually amounts to a conspiracy whereby the widow and the fatherless are defrauded out of their just dues unless they consent to surrender other dues as justly theirs. Capitalism in its greed has never gone to viler lengths, and if the law does not now provide a remedy, which we believe it does, it is time one was made for it. This infamous system of so-called assurance must be ended forthwith, and men should as a preliminary step insure themselves direct with some respectable company. The Ocean Accident itself will give them better terms than they can ever gel from their rapacious employers; but when that corporation is liable to pa} any damages which may be awarded j against the employers, as is now the case, they cannot be blamed for seeking to make terms.

But the vile altogether indefensible part of the business is that men's wages should be docked to find insurance fees for capital, and that the latter should then be permitted to use such sums as a means of oppressing their helpless kin, and of scaring them out of having recourse to their legal remedies.

Inquest: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/157555600?searchTerm=keswick%20inquest%20collie