What is a Week?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 781, 25 March 1905, Page 2

What is a Week?

| A FACTOItIF.S ACT QtKSTIUX. The Factories and Shops Act o JSUti of Victoria prohibits the oc 1 cup ! er ol' a factory from einployiiij I any girl more than 4S hours "it ' any one week.'' Tilt- (pies!ion as ti ■ what is the meaning of the won • "week" in that expression was deal with by "Mr Justice llodges in a reserved judgment which he delivere; ' on February ~~n:l, and as the Kami expression is used in the New Zealand Factories Act, it Is wortl knowing how the Victorian judge interprets It, The matter arose for deterinina lion out of an order to review the decision of a bench of magistrates on an information against a manufacturer,, of having contrary to th< act, employed a girl in his factory lor more than 48 hours in the week i that commenced oil Sunday, ISM October, and ended on Saturday, tlu 29th of that month. For the defendant it was contended that 'the week should not be reckoned according to the calendar, but according to the pay day of the person employed, ami that in tips case the week accordingly wouhl be from Friday to the following Thursday (inolusive), and if that were taken as the week the girl had not beei) employed during it for more that the statutory number of hours, The justices adopted this view. a«| dismissed the case. The informant then obtained an order nisi tp reyiew their decision, and the matter was urgued. Mr Justice llodges, iji delivering his judgment s:iid that the ujuestion Was what meaning was to be given to the word week in tho section of the net under consideration. It was possible lor it to bear olio of three meanings—(1) '1 ho period between Sunday and the following Snturdav both included ; (1!) a. week of employment, from one day to the next ; oi' (•>) and period of seven consecutive days. The bifjt detinitfon cou-M at once !,e rejected, as (dearlv not what was intijndpd, The .question then 1 , was which oi the other two meanings was to be adopted. Either oi them would make the statute e iually ellicacious, but hi; had to look at it from a practical standpoint, and ask himself which mario tlu. 1 ;j<-l worß most simply a i )( j smoothly. In this view he thought that undiV the present circumstances the week should he jt'tjvijn ti, mean a wiek of. work 'l wijS', htfw'jivcr; to be' borne in mind that lie was not deciding that the word wjfck always meant a week oi wor lit in that section;, there might b/; factories in which [arson's were nof, employed ..by t|w wpek, but by the day,, or iif some other way. In those puses a different meaning might ■lit! Riven io the word •< wpeic " in Wi«r tp imike the act effective and applicable to all thy varying circum* stances under which the factories were conducted. U e therefore held thnt the .hisUci>.s were j 'lhat is to Kay. if a person is en-' guged by the wee'\, the week cnJ(>! with pay-iju;',