LAW REPORTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2560, 7 September 1915, Page 9

LAW REPORTS

I SUPREME COURT , ■ .WAIKATO LAND DEALv - f f ' ; After a hearing. lasting ove&rseveral days at the Supreme Court fhe case, Herbert Hingley and Leonard Guest v. Richard Keene, claiming completion of a land contract to purchase _ 1338 acres of land at Pukokura, Waikato, was concluded yesterday before His Honour Mr. Justice Hosking. Judgment was reserved, i — ~ !; ARBITRATION COURT | : FURNITURE TRADE AWARD. I An award has been filed in the Arbitration Court, in respect to the Wellington United Furniture Trade dispute. It provides for a 44-hour week, with a minimum wage for .journeymen cabinetmakers, upholsterers, chair and framo makers, machinists, wood-carvers, turners, and polishers of Is! 6d. per hour, and for picture-framers and wire-mat-trass'makers of Is. 4Jd. per hour. Labourers employed at unskilled work in the trade shall receive not less than Is.' lsd. per hour. Overtime is at the rate of time and a quarter for the first two hours, and thereafter time and a. half up to 10 p.m., and double time after 10 p.m., with time and'a half for work on the ordinary holidays., The wages for apprentices range from 9s. per week in the first year up to 30s. per week in the fifth year. The usual provision is made with regard to under-rato workers, and the preference clause is inserted. Other .clauses deal with casual labour, helpers, and general conditions. The scopo of the award) is the AVellington industrial district, and the term from October 4, 1915, to December 31, 1917, • • In a; memorandum 1 attached, the President of the Court (Mr. Justice Stringer) says that the award embodies tho agreement arrived at by a'conference ot the employers and the workers, and, it is understood, is to form the basis.of a Dominion award. , At the hearing objection was raised as to the inclusion in the award of picture-framers and wire-mattrass-makers, and 'after discussion the union was willing that employers in these trades should' be exempted, froiu the provisions of the award as to tho minimum rate of wages, and apprentices'. As, however, this would have'left the matter of wages in these branches of the industry entirely at large,- the X/Ourt decided to fix the minimum rate for wages'in these trades as heretofore existing, -aDd has exempted them from the apprentice clause, which was clearly inapplicable : to such trades. The Court has also i struck' put a clause Which it had no jurisdiction to impose, and has added-a clause to meet cases where the worker commences his work at some place other than tho employers' place of business.