£5000 A LETTER.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1924, Page 1

£SOOO A LETTER.

Not long ago one of our High (’nine judges declared that the legal definition of one Kiiglisli word alone had eosl. at feast £o,ooo for every letter it contains. And probably this is no exaggeration, says a barrister at. law in the "Dailv Mail.”

lens of thousands of pounds have been spent on determining precisely "hat a ‘‘domestic servant” is. What is the difference between “on” and "trom”—as in the ease of an insurance to take effect from September 21 !' What is the meaning of “apparent” as applied to a will!- Are horses "eattle”!' Is a bicycle a ‘•carriage” for the purposes of toll!' Is a house a "factory” f Is a bedstead “bedding” “ The word ‘■tramcar” was not long ago dragged from court to court to

determine whether ii was ii ’•carriage" or a “coach”; ami it ivas not until it had liocn haled before llio supremo tri I ill list 1 of the lands that it was finally lahelkd a "coach.” Probably no word lias lioon tlm object of as miter lotinted ttnd heated arguments as “necessaries'’—such as parents and guardians are legally hotiml to provide for ti person under a fie. What may he “necessary’’ for a person of one class may lie a luxury for another of lower degree, and the problem is to determine what are. “necessaries” in scores of different cases. Actions hv the hundred have been brought to determine what is “negligence” and what an “accident” in the view of the law, the interpretation naturally depending oil llio particular case.

The problem is. an hotel a “shop”? proved almost, as difficult to solve as ti Chinese puzzle. Counsel waxed elori uetit and heated, and grave judges wrinkled harassed brows over it, before the answer at last came that tin hotel is a “simp” for the purposes of the Shop Hours Act. According to the (laming Act hotting is illegal in "any house, office, room, or place” ; ttnd it was around the last word that the storm of argument raged so fiercely and so- long. One judge decided that a tree in Hyde Park, for example, was not a “place” within the. meaning of the Act; another that a limn standing on a box under the shelter of an umbrella was equally outside the law. ' And so the unhappy monosyllabic was wrangled over in one court and another, and carried to the Lords.