MURPHY V. DAVIDSON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 108, 10 May 1867, Page 3

MURPHY V. DAVIDSON.

To the Editor of the 'Nelson Evening Mail.'

Sir, — A case was brought before the Resident Magistrate, on Wednesday last, the decision on which may, I fear, exercise a very injurious effect upon our domestic arrangements. I allude to the case, Murphy v. Davidson, for the recovery of a week's wages due to the plaintiff, a servant in the family of the defendant. It was distinctly proved tbat the girl, on entering into service, had agreed to take or give a month's waruiug, but, in spite of tbis, she thought proper to give only a week's warning to her employers, at a time, too, when her services were most especially required. The Resident Magistrate, however, ordered the defendant to pay the amount demanded, with costs. This verdict is, I need hardly remark, in contravention of the general understanding that all such engagements between masters and servants are determinable by a month's notice on either side, and I cannot but fear that, suffering as the heads of families in this place already do, from rampant servantgallism, this decision will be considered as a precedent, should any capricious damsel, induced either by a prospect of amusemeut elsewhere, or of a possible necessity for increased exertion on her part through sickness in the family, think proper, by giving a week's warning, to quit the service in which she is engaged ; possibly, too, as in this case, afc a season when her assistance was most required. Is there no provision in the " Master and Servants' Act" which deals with this question ?

I am etc.,

Materfamilias.

[Our correspondent is evidently not aware that there is no Master and Servants' Act iv operation in this colony, and we believe that we are justified in stating that there is virtually no law in New Zealand, as there is iv other colonies, by which the relations of master and servant can be defined, further than those ordinarily subsisting between contracting parties generally. There is a special Act with reference to apprentices, but the English statutes on this subject aye virtually inapplicable to this colony. — Ed. E. M.]