The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 291, 21 November 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

The Workmen’s Wages Bill is one calculated to remove a gross abuse to which working men have hitherto been subjected. The measure was introduced by Mr. Cadman, who has apparently taken great pains to make the bill one which should meet the end it was intended to serve, that of securing to the laborer his hard-won earnings. Hitherto when a contractor has fallen into difficulties the workman has invariably had to suffer by the loss of his money, and as a consequence has been compelled by force of circumstances to divide his losses pro rata among the storekeepers and butchers. Every one must have food to subsist on and it stands to reason that if a laborer is jobbed of his stock-in-trade—viz., his wages—the community at large must find his supplies in some way or other. By the new bill it is provided that any workman whose wages remain unpaid for twenty-four hours after they are due may obtain a summons for his employer, and any Justice may at the same time or any time thereafter grant leave to the workman to serve a “ notice of attachment” specifying the sum sued for, upon any “ employer of such workman’s employer.” Upon receiving this notice the last mentioned person is to retain in his hahds so much of the moneys held by him as is desired by the workman until judgment in the matter has been given in the Magistrate’s Court. On obtaining judgment the workman can obtain an order for payment of the moneys attached, which are to be paid to him by the person served with the original notice of attachment. No notice of attachment is to cover more than 60 days wages, nor is one to be made if the work has been done upon a moveable chattel upon which a workman has a lien by retaining the same in his possession. When several notices have been served the workmen are to be paid according to priority of the respective notices. If the person served with notice of attachment fails to pay in due course, the workman may sue and recover the moneys attached. Persons furnishing materials for work are to have the same redress as workmen. Lastly the “ Contractors Debts Act., 1871,” is repealed. There are many in the colony who will

remember that in former years it was impossible for a labourer to obtain redress who had suffered any injustice at the hands of his master. The process was too intricate and expensive, and that naturally strong bias of justice in favour of power placed the labourer at a yet further disadvantage. The present Act by simplifying and cheapening the process will place the laborer on a far better footing than he occupied heretofore in such matters. It is only one of a number of laws having the same general policy which have of late years found their way on to the Statute book, and, as is above remarked, it is to be looked upon as a healthy sign of a growing spirit, which will, we trust, continue to gain influence with our legislators, until the cry of the legally oppressed is no longer heard in the land, and equality in the eye of the law prevails. That much has yet to be done before this consummation is reached especially in the direction of facilitating and cheapening procedure, we are only too well aware • but as long as the colony or its Legislature is travelling on the right road there is no occasion for despondency or even doubt as to the end.