Defining an Industry

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6519, 7 April 1931, Page 8

Defining an Industry

COURT MAKES AN EFFORT JUDGES AND LAWYERS Whilst an application by certain banking companies for a reduction by 10 per cent, in the salaries of members of the Bank Officers’ Association was before the Full Court of the Arbitration Court in Melbourne recently, a discussion arose on the oft-debated question of what is an industry. Mr. Stanley Lewis, who, with Mr. Menzies, K.C., was appearing for the banks, said that banking was one of the key industries.

Chief Judge Dethridge: Oh, no. Judge Beeby: I would not call it an industry. It is a service. Mr. Lewis: We once argued that we were not an industry, but the High Court said that we were.

Chief Judge Dethridge: Of course it is an industry in a sense. Mr. Lewis: The High Court held that, in the plainest English, we were an industry.

Chief Judge Dethridge: They may have been right. They sometimes are. Judge Beeby: Are lawyers engaged in an industry? Mr. Cohen, K.C. (for the association): Or perhaps your Honours could tell us are Judges an industry? Judge Drake-Brockman: We are certainly very industrious. Chief Judge Dethridge: Certainly wb are an industry—that is, if we are not in slavery.