ARBITRATION COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 166, 13 July 1907, Page 3

ARBITRATION COURT.

'njPOECAST AGRICULTURAL CASE. i (B 7 Telegraph.-Press Association.) i BLENHEIM, this day. in arbitration case of importance to all the agricultural districts of the Sony te" d at , Bleahe ! m H to<lay ; Ctf'a. threshing machine hand, met ~W an accident resulting in the loss n/cne eve, and claimed £'iOO compensation from David Bisheli, owner of the Machine used. Bi=heil ; who was covered hv an Ocean Accident insurance policy, contested the claim, holding that he was not tue man's employer, but a farmer. Evidence given a≤ to custom showed that the engine driver and the feeder were tie only men paid by the machine owner out of the contract price for threshing, the other men being paid a lump sum ioi wages by the farmer, according to the time worked, one of their number acting as paymaster and time-recorder. The fanner also found the men in food and lodging, and supplied coal for the gnome. ilr. Scott Smith. S.M., found, on the main question, that the machine owner tras an employer, as the gang followed the mill throughout the season and took orders from the owner only. A mutuai settlement was arrived at. The'Secision will have the effect probably of forcing machine owners to included contracts the threshing price of all machine hands' This was the first case of the kind in the colony.