Ashburton Guardian MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRÆVALEBIT. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1893. THRESHING MACHINES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3047, 9 August 1893, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRÆVALEBIT. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1893. THRESHING MACHINES.

Major Steward, member for Waimate, has drawn a Bill, which is now before the House, having for its object the securing to threshing machine owners of a preference claim on the grain or seed threshed for the cost of threshing. That such a preference was necessary has been only too often proved in this county to the cost of many owners of threshing machines. Crops under mortgages of various kinds have been threshed by the mills, and suddenly the holders of the mortgages come in and sweep up the whole thing, leaving the machine owner without a penny for his labor, with all his gang of men to pay, and the cost, no small thing in itself, of running his mill. Major Steward's Bill is of three clauses only. The first gives it its title—-The Threshing Machine Owners' Lien Act, 1893—and the other two, the operative clauses, tell their own story so well! that we give them in full thus 4 —(2) The owner or lessee of any threshing machine, hereinafter called " the oontractor," who shall contract with any other person, hereinafter called "the contractee," to thresh any grain or seeds shall be entitled to a preferential lien as against all creditors of the contractee over such grain or seeds until payment of the full contract price, or, if no contract shall have been made as to price, then until payment of the 'ordinary ruling price for the like work. (3) The contractor shall be entitled to retain possession of any grain or seeds threshed by him until payment of the price of threshing, but he shall be required to take all due precautions to prevent any such grain or seeds being damaged while in his possession, and shall be responsible for any injury or loss suffered by the contractee through any neglect of such precautions by such contractor.