OPERA HOUSE A FACTORY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 64, 16 March 1911, Page 2

OPERA HOUSE A FACTORY.

JUDGMENT IN A PALMERSTON

CASE

PALMERSTON, Feb. 14. Mr Thomson, S.M., gave a written judgment yesterday in the case Inspector of Factories v. Palmerston Borough Council, in which defendants were proceeded against for failing to register the Opera House as a factory. The Magistrate held that defendants should register as a factory, .because under the Act any building in which two or more persons were employed in such work as ordinarily, done in a factory on behalf of a local authorty, whether for trade or sale or not, must be deemed a factory. Defendants claimed that only one man was employed, but the Magistrate held that there were two persons employed, .namely, the occupier and the man in charge of the- engine. The judgment further held that work done on the premises in connection with the generation of electricity was such as was ordinarily performed in a factory, even though such electricity was not generated for trade or sale. Defendants were, therefore, convicted and a nominal fine inflicted.

The conviction, it will be seen, only applies to theatres conducted by local authorities. . The Magistrate held that r the indirect gain from the use of electric light for pictures did not satisfy the words "for trade or sale," and that supply of electric light to theatrical companies was also outside the meaning of the Act in relation to trade or sale. Private-ly-run picture theatres are, therefore, not under the judgment compelled to register.