NEWS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1931, Page 7

NEWS ITEMS

STATUS DEFINED. EMPTiOYMENT OF WORKER. CLAIM FAILS. Unusual features are contained in a case, in which the Arbitration Court has given judgment, in which the court was called on to deal with the status ol a worker casually employed as a jobbing gardener. Samuel McFotridge, of Northcote, | Auckland, gardener, proceeded against Sidney Edwin McGill, of Northcote, grocer, claiming compensation in respect of a broken leg, sustained accidentally by plaintiff while in the employment- of defendant. Air Justice Frazer, in his judgment, said there was no authority for flic proposition that the employment of a casual gardener was an employment in domestic. service within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Act. .The present plaintiff was not a general handy man permanently employed in and about the defendant’s house and grounds, but was a casual worker employed for a special quantity of work about the allotment. Judgment was given for defendant •GREAT CATHEDRAL. BUILDING AT LIVERPOOL. FUNDS FROM DOMINIONS. Lancastrians in the Dominions and elsewhere abroad have voluntarily shouldered responsibility to assist in raising £93,-534, the balance of £300,= 000 appealed for six years ago to meet the cost of the great central -space of the Anglican Cathedral now under construction at Liverpool. Men in Australia, Brazil, Calcutta, and the United States, and Canada are regularly sending gifts. One contributor in Sydney declares that the cathedral “is putting Liverpool on the map as f ;> >' as remote countries are concerned.”

The great central space, which is now being built, will alone accommodate a congregation of 3.000. This i-s to be the most characteristic and original feature of the cathedra], and it will have no exact counterpart among any of the world’s great churches. Normally the congregation will be seated there. Its main entrance, the Rankin Porch, one of the most important features of the exterior of the building. haS just been completed, and its semicircular arch ha,s a span of more than 60 feet, while the adjoining walls and piers have already risen to a height of 67 feet. The floor area of this great central space will be 15,180 square feet, as compared with 9,335 in St. Paul’s. 14,830 in St-. Peter’s, and 20,000 in the projected Roman Catholic Cathedral at Liverpool, while the . maximum height under the tower will be 173 feet. PEOPLE’S THEATRE. MR SNOWDEN’S SCHEME. Airs Philip Snowden, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is engaged on a new scheme for a democratic theatre, in which the poorest theatre-goer '•an -see firs’t-class plays acted by first-class actors and actresses. “For a long time I have been urging the need for at national theatre,” said Mrs Snowden in an interview, “and this People's Theatre, which it is hoped will be open by the end of next month, is certainly a -step in the -right direction, How wil 1

it he possible for everyone to go P Well, until November the subscription for membership is 2s 6d. This membership ticket will secure admission to any seat in the theatre for 2,s 4d, including tax. I think everyone will agree that even the poorest theatregoers will be able to afford that. “Naturally, after the theatre staits, the subscription will have to he raised, but even then it will not he heavy. It is by virtue of this 2s 6d membership that the capital is raised. We want 20,000 members before we start, which will ensure the nucleus of a public. Although the scheme has been set going only within the last few weeks we have enrolled 10,000, and we hope to get another 10,000 within a fortnight. It is the first time that such a scheme lias been tried in this country, although it has proved most successful in other countries, particularly in Berlin.”