WORK AND WAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 9774, 2 August 1895, Page 2

WORK AND WAGES.

The Selection Committee of the Unemployed Relief Works Association met in the Town Hall Buildings to-day and selected fifteen men for employment on the relief works.

The Rev. W. H. Ash has suggested to the Otago Miners’ Association the advisability of authorising the prospectors to search for coal. Many lignite deposits had been found in the interior, and it would be a great boon to the country districts if bituminous coal could be discovered. Another letter received by the trustees is from Mr James Smith, who, in enclosing his cheque for £5, slated that he had originally' intended to give that sum in augmentation of the relief works fund, but now that the proj. ct contemplated by the Miners’ Association appeared to have assumed a practical shape he preferred diverting his donation to the promotion of an enterprise which in his opinion was far more worthy of general support. The trustees express their sincere regret that the Relief Works Committee have seen lit to again decline the Association’s application for a grant from the funds subscribed by the public. . A meeting of the Otago Trades and Labor Council and of the executive officers of the various trades unions was held last evening (Mr S. C. Brown in the chair), when it was resolved to appoint a trustee to represent those bodies on the Miners’ Association, and Mr R. Ferguson, president of the Typographical Association, was elected. The Wellington City Council last night received a deputation, w’ho stated that they had canvassed the town for subscriptions in aid of the unemployed and had collected over £SOO from some fifty subscribers. The Council unanimously agreed to vote £SOO towards the object. It is understood that the promoters of the fund intend, if possible, to arrange that the money be expended in preparing the recreation ground in the vicinity of the Botanic Gardens. Mr Martin, Stipendiary Magistrate at Wellington, delivered judgment yesterday in a case under the Truck Act, in which F. Cole sued Stewart and Co. for £9 15s, claim for deductions made by the firm from plaintiff’s wages. His Worship said he w'as sorry to be compelled to give judgment for plaintiff. The facts were that a quantity of building and glaziers’ material had been sold to plaintiff on the understanding that payment might be made by Cole at the rate of 5s per w'eek, or such other sum per week as Cole could pay, and the deductions from his wages were only made on weeks that plaintiff’ used these materials in the decoration of his own house and in doing work for other persons, for which he received payment. After thirteen years’ employment he left the employ of Stewart and Co., and when they sued for payment for theiraccount he pleaded the Truck Act, and now brought an action for the amount deducted from his wages . with his consent, though he had the use of the proceeds. On the authority of a recent English case, he was compelled to give judgment for the plaintiff, considering that he had no right to exercise the powers conferred by the “ equity and good conscience ” clauses of the Magistrate’s Court Act in order to override an express provision of a recent Act of Parliament.