rise by
L15 to L350.

The English Commission has 19, the Welsh 1, the Scotch 5, and
the Irish 5 Women Health Insurance Officers, on a scale of salary
L80-5-L110, after two years rising by L7, 10s. to L150. This scale is
precisely the same as that of Men Health Insurance Officers.

The duties of Men and Women Inspectors and Officers under the National
Health Insurance Commission are identical in character and scope.

The primary function of these officers is to impose upon the whole
adult population the new conditions created by the Act--_i.e._, they
have to ensure the proper payment of contributions in respect of all
persons liable to be insured.

Trades are assigned to Men or Women Inspectors according as a trade
employs men or women in greater numbers.

The Insurance Commissioners work through the Inspectors in all matters
that are more susceptible to local treatment than to treatment by
correspondence. The Inspectors obtain information and make local
enquiries as to the facts in cases submitted to the Commissioners for
determination under various sections of the Act.

An interesting account of the very varied duties which fall to the
lot of these Officers will be found in the first "Report on the
Administration of the National Insurance Act," Part I., which has
recently been published. The following extract from that Report will
give some idea of the work done by the Women Inspectors, and the
estimate which has been formed of it.

"Inasmuch as the Insurance Commission is the first Government
Department in which a woman staff has been appointed from the outset,
special mention may be made of one portion of the work carried out
by the women inspectors during the past year. The enquiry held in the
autumn by Mr Pope on the objections raised to the inclusion of
married women outworkers within the provisions of Part I. of the Act
necessitated much careful investigation among employers and outworkers
in a large number of trades all over the country, such as tailoring,
glove-making, lace manufacture, carding of hooks and eyes, pins and
needles, buttons and fish-hooks at Birmingham, net-making at
Bridport, chain-making at Cradley Heath, straw hat-making at Luton,
chair-making, box-making, and boot, shoe, and hosiery manufacture.
This investigation was undertaken by the women staff. The enquiry
entailed hundreds of visits, both in the poorest parts of industrial
towns and in remote country districts, and in interview