McLEAN V. POSTELTHWAITE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2017, 8 March 1890, Page 2

McLEAN V. POSTELTHWAITE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib,—When I read the report -of this case in your columns it struck me that it would be interesting to know what reason, or motive, His Worship had for reserving his decision; and now he has found a clumsy excuse for what appears to me to be a very unjust decision. It was not denied that Mr McLean had earned the money he claimed, nor was it even suggested that Mr Postlethwaite had sustained 1 any loss, beyond his unsupported statement that he paid another man 10s for showing McLean how to work the machine; and to recoup this he retained £2 10s, on principle, his lawyer said. Judgment reserved under such circumstances is apt to raise a suspicion in one's mind that His Worship is not actuated by a strong love of justice in deciding between a poor mau and a rich one. It is always assumed that our judges ave to be guided to a certain extent by equity as well as law. His Worship's learnedlike quotation of a precedent would have come with far better grace from a pettifogging special pleader than it does from the beuch. His method of arriving at his decision, as reported in your columns, is simply ridiculous. He says the agreement under which the shearers were engaged was posted in a prominent position in the shed, and defendant and others saw plaintiff reading it. Plaintiff swore positively that he never read, or had his attention called to, the agreemeent until after he told defendant he was going to leave. Defendant tacitly admitted that nothing had been said to plaintiff about an agreement until after consulting his son re plaintiff leaving. Neither was there a tittle of evidence to show whether the agreement was printed or written legibly, or that the alaintiff was a person who could read. [ flatter myself that I can read as ■veil as most working men, and I saw loeuoient stuck up in a prominent

position in a flax mill in this district headed, in legible hand-writing, " Eules to be observed by Workers,*" but after trying my best I was beat to decipher what was written below the heading. Yet, according to our R.M.' the most illiterate worker is bound by those rules, whatever they are. Could anything be more absurd? But a working man is not able to test the legality of a judgment, however much he may be convinced that he is wronged by it, and scarcely anyone thinks that anything can be wrong that does not affect self. We are proud of the patriotism, glory, and prowess of our ancestors, ana are sprung of a noble race • but what are IV f S-^f 1 °£P arasite s> sycophants, and toadies! For mo re than thirty years now intelligent observers have been predicting that Great Britain has passed the zenith of her greatness and when we thiak of the condition of Ireland, the labor troubles, the We«t -fcmd scandals, and the scandalous abuse and mismanagement of political and public matters throughout the -Umpire, it does seem that she is goin°downhill at a hard gallop. Who* will cheek our downward career? The working men have power to do so but they are ground down to such a'low state of servility they can think of nothing but where they are to get another meal for their families. We require no stronger proof of the lowness of their condition than the tact that men can be got to work under ■ an agreement such as Mr Postle-M

thwaite alleges existed between him and his shearers—an agreement which placed the employer in the position of getting as much of his work done for nothing as he chose. It is contrary to to the spirit of British justice that such grossly one-sided agreements should be upheld in a Court of Justice. But, alas! my country, I weep for thee, Equity—British love of fair play pis a tradition of a bygone age!—l am, etc., "Wit. -L;T DtJisrcAx. [While it does not affect the fairness or otherwise of the rules referr«d to by our 1 ' correspondent, it' is only : I right to printout that it was ataWrJ |on oath by several witnesses thai similar rules are in force-in, other jshearing sheds; therefore Mr MeLean ; might naturally be supposed to know ithe conditions under which he '-was working— Ed] " r _ '- 7--C