SOUTHERN NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1907, Page 5

SOUTHERN NEWS.

-1 (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) ESCAPE OF PRISONERS. HOKITLKA. Tuesday. Two prisoners, John Delany and Ralph Gibbons, convicted at the last sitting of the Supreme Court of burglary at Westport, escaped from custody today.

THE FLAXMCLLING INDUSTRY.

DUNEDIN. this day. At a meeting of the committee of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce letters were received from the Otago Flaxmillers' Association, a committee of flaxmillers and merchants at Invercarglll. and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, enumerating objections to the regulations recently issued governing the grading and export of Phormium fibre. A sub-com-mittee was appointed" to consider th,.- correspondence, and prepare a letter to the Minister for Agriculture on the subject.

NOT A JEWELLER.

WELLINGTON, this day. An interesting point was decided by Mr Riddell, S.M., to-day in the question as to whether Syrian shopkeepers who have cheap trinkets and ornaments for sale could be called jewellers, and so have to observe the same hours as jewellers. The Magistrate held, in the case in point, that the Syrian was not a jeweller, and was not affected by the Gazette notice concerning jewellers' hours. The ease was accordingly dismissed.

EMPLOYERS AXD ARBITRATION.

CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A meeting of the executive of the Canterbury Employers' Association last night adopted a resolution expressing surprise and concern at the Arbitration Court's departure from well-established precedents, and entered a strong protest against the establishment of the principle of weekly employment in the Otago felthatters' award, and the interpretation given in the Wellington typographers' award, by which payment for a holiday is ordered, notwithstanding that the previous interpretation of the Court had decided otherwise. A protest was also resolved on against imposing a penalty on a Gisborne painter for breach of an award, which had previously been settled by the Labour Department. The executive considered that such an innovation in the Act was prejudicially to the interests of the industries of the colony, and, therefore, referred the matter to tlie Advisory Board osf New Zealand Employers.