IMPORTANT CASE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 74, 24 February 1938, Page 8

IMPORTANT CASE

INTERPRETATION OF ACT.

FULL COURT TO DECIDE. Per Press CHRISTCHtJRH, 1 ( eh. 24. Emphasising the far-reaching effect the decision on the case would have. Mr Justice. Northcroft, after hearing flip ■Aheal of Charles Edward Otley, manager of C. E. Otley, Ltd., against his conviction in the Magistrate s Court for a breach of the Factories Act, suggested to counsel that it mi"lit be advisable to refer the ca„e to the adjudication of the ,FuH Court, which would be sitting in Wellington Appellant was convicted and fined £2 by Mr E. C. ..Levvey, S.M., for a breach of the Factory Amendment Act, 1936 (Section 14), in that, being the occupier of a factory, he failed to pay timber stackers and yard labourers for the Labour Day holiday. He has now appealed against this conviction. ■lf counsel desired his decision, lie would take time to consider it, His Honour said,- but a more binding decision than the opinion of one Judge might be preferable. The question at issue amounted to whether an open space could be deemed to be a factoiy within the meaning and scope of the Factories Act, by reason of the activities carried on there. If such was the case, then the operation of threshing mills and other agricultural, machinery might possibly make a farmer s paddock a factory under the Act. ' After the Court had adjourned to enable counsel to discuss Mr Justice Ncrrthcroft’s suggestion, they informed him that they had agreed to submit th» case to the Full Court.