INSURANCE OF AGRICITI,TtrRAI. I^ABOURERS 53 



in conformity with the mandate given him. The number of votes of each 

 afdeeling is calculated upon the amount of wages its members pay in a year. 

 The afdeeling has one vote for every 25,000 florins so paid, but no afdeeling 

 has more than three (not more than five in Zealand) . 



The local commissions form the basis on which the whole insurance 

 organization rests. Their principal duty is to investigate every case of 

 accident, its importance and its causes, and to see that the victim receives 

 medical attendance and treatment and the compensation due to him for 

 the loss of his wages according to the conditions of insurance. As in most 

 cases the consequences of accidents do not last beyond two months, the local 

 commissions must perform the greater part of the work unaided. Together 

 with this their principal business, they also have other work of a prepar- 

 atory nature, such as, that of ascertaining the amount of annual wages paid 

 by members, on the basis of which their contributions are fixed. 



The Central jNlutual Society {Centrale Landhouw-Onderlinge) is under 

 the management cf the College of Commissioners (Commissarissen), con- 

 sisting of representatives of the provincial insurance organizations. The 

 business management is in the hands of a board, composed of two persons 

 appointed at the general meeting. There is, besides, a Comniissie van Toe- 

 zicht for supervision of the business and a commission for the examination 

 of the balance sheet and the book keeping : both these commissions are 

 composed of Commissarissen. 



The Central Society provides for compensation in the more serious 

 cases, those requiring medical attendance for more than two months or 

 resulting in death. It thus serves in some degree as a reinsurance 

 institute. Besides this, it is the ordinary administrative body, dealing 

 with every question of technical administration or of general legal cha- 

 racter. For this part of its work, together with other organizations uniting 

 with it for the same object, the Centrale Werkgevers-Risico-Bank and the 

 Wet-Risico (L,egal Risk) association, it has founded an excellent and very 

 special administrative body, the Centraal Beheer, to which the greater 

 part of the administrative work is entrusted. In this way it has been 

 arranged that the organization, still in its youth, might from the start have 

 a staff trained to settle the difficult problems it has to deal with, without 

 incurring excessive expense. 



In addition to the organization proper above described, there are also 

 ten arbitration Committees [Commissies von Scheidslieden) in the various 

 provinces, deciding appeals against the decisions of the management. 

 At the end of 1912 there was further founded a Higher Commission {Hoofd 

 Cemmissie) as a second court of appeal. These Commissions are composed 

 of a president, a secretary and four members, with their deputies, half of 

 them labourers. 



Benefits. — According to the accident regulations established by the 

 Central Society, and considerably extended by the plenary meeting of De- 

 cember 19th., 1912, compensation is given for every accident to any one hired 

 for agricultural work. Only those labourers and employees engaged exclus- 

 ively for work not of an agricultural kind, as, for example, bakers, are 



