We have already given a synopsis of some of the labor legislation of last session, and now come to the Act passed m amendment of "The Em ployers Liability Act, 1882." This makes several important alterations of the previously existing law, inter alia enlarging its scope so as to embrace persons who follow maritime pursuits by providing that the expression "workman" shall include "seaman," the latter term including " every person employed upon a ship, whether at sea or m port." The scope, of the term " workman," and by consequence that of the Act itself, is also greatly widened, being defined to mean " any person, male or female, whether under or over the age of twenty-one years, who under contract with an employer, contracts personally to do or perform any work or manual labor of any kind, whether technical, skilled, or unskilled, and whether such contract be oral or m writing, express or implied." Hence forth, when m any navigable waters within or m the jurisdiction of New Zealand personal injury is caused to a seaman by rjjason of the negligence of any employer, or of any person having the authority of the employer, or by reason of any defect m the condition of any ship or its appurtenances -which could by any reasonable care and diligence have been discovered and remedied, such seaman, or his repre sentatives as the case may be, has or have the same remedies against the employer as has any other class of workman. As regards the amount of compensation for injury which may be recovered by any workman, it is pro vided that it shall not exceed a sum equivalent to the estimated earnings for three years of a person m the same grade of employment, nor m any case may it exceed the sum of £500 for any one cause of action. In determining tiie amount of compensation payable by an employer, the Court is to take into consideration the value of any payment or contribution made by the employer to the injured person for or m respect of his injury, and also the

value of any payment or contribution made by the employertoanyinsuranceor compensation fund to the extent of the benefit the injured person has received or is entitled to receive out of such fund. 