A TAILOR’S WAGES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 November 1935, Page 6

A TAILOR’S WAGES

TO BE PAID IN ENGLISH CURRENCY SUPREME COURT DECISION lßy Telegraph—Press Association] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. In a reserved judgment, to-day Mr Justice Northcroi't said that pounds sterling meant British, not New Zealand, currency. He was asked to decide a. claim by Charles Francis de Bueger, a tailor, against J. Ballantync and Co., Ltd., drapers, where plaintiff maintained that under an agreement made in England to pay him £7OO a year in sterling meant in English money. His Honour also said that plaintiff was entitled to recover interest on deficiencies in payments made by defendant over three years. His Honour said the word “sterling” in the agreement was not used in a meaningless sense , but when linked with the word “pounds” had a definite meaning, as recently emphasised bv litigation in English Courts. He did not regard “sterling” as meaning merely legal tender, and considered the parties which had used the words “pounds sterling” meant pounds in English currency, and thus specified the measure of defendant's obligation. He was not prepared to say that the word “sterling” got into the agreement by an oversight, but the Court could not ignore its presence.