NOT A FACTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 62, 10 September 1937, Page 10

NOT A FACTORY

GRADING EGGS FOR SALE

A SUCCESSFUL APPEAL

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A poultry and egg market holding poultry auction sales and testing and grading eggs is not a factory. This is the import of a judgment given by his Honour Mr. Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court this morning on an appeal by William Herbert West, who conducts such a market, against a conviction entered against him in the Magistrate's Court for failing to register his premises as a factory. His Honour upheld the appeal and quashed the conviction. Three girls were employed in the appellant's premises in the process uf testing eggs, after which they graded the eggs according to weight, said his Honour in his judgment. Eighty per cent, of the eggs were received at the market already graded. The object was to be able to sell a guaranteed tested egg. No charge was made for the testing, the appellant's remuneration being as commission for selling eggs No steam or mechanical power was employed in the testing. A factory was defined as any place in which two or more persons were employed in preparing or manufacturing goods for trade or sale. In,his Honour's opinion the process used by the appellant did not involve preparing goods for trade or sale Those words suggested treatment of goods which was calculated to make them more attractive for trade or sale. The appellant did no more than unpack, sort, and repack.