SHEARING RECORD ATTEMPT

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27985, 4 June 1956, Page 7

SHEARING RECORD ATTEMPT

Compensation Sought For Man’s Death WIDOW’S CLAIM FAILS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 3. A claim for compensation for the death of a man after his attempt to break the world sheep-shearing record has been decided by Judge Dalglish in the Compensation Court at Wellington. He found against Mrs Hazel Alice Oliver, a widow, of Te Kuiti, suing on behalf of herself and her three infant children. The defendants were George Clisham Keeble, accountant, William Jackson, retired, and Caroline Akers, a widow, all of Palmerston North, as trustees in the estate of the late H. Ackers, and Man H. Ackers, a farmer, of Opiki. Palmerston North. The judgment said that Charles Frnest Oliver died at Palmerston North on January 7. 1955. after an attempt to break a sheep-shearing record on a property owned by the first three defendants, as trustees, and managed by the fourth defendant.

Mrs Oliver claimed that in attempting to break the record. Oliver was shearing sheep for the defendants, anri was a worker employed by the defendants.

Judge Dalglish found that the arrangement made between Oliver and A. H. Akers, on behalf of the defendants, was not an arrangement whereby he became a worker in the emnloyment of the defendants The outstanding feature of the discussions, said Judge Dalglish, was that this was to be an attempt on a world shearing record and that Oliver was desirous of shearing the same sheen as Godfrey Bowen had shorn, and of using the shed he had used when he established his record.