LEGAL INQUIRIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22714, 28 April 1937, Page 17

LEGAL INQUIRIES

MANY PROBLEMS SOLVED

This column appears each Wednesday. Care will be taken to ensure that the legal guidance is sound and accurate and as complete as possible 011 the facts supplied, but no responsibility is undertaken for the advice or information. Send questions to "Advocatus," care of Editor, New Zealand Herald, Auckland, and enclose name and address as guarantee of good faith. Postal box numbers are not accepted as bona fide addresses. Initials or a pseudonym must also be given for purposes of reference in the column.

A.M.—The invalidity pension is only granted where the incapacity is permanent. Farm Hand.—The Act makes it obligatory for both employer and employee to see that wages tax is paid, and in tho event of default 011 tho part of either the other will be liable. P.T.—You may shoot on your own' property without a licence. Hard Pressed.-—-Tho. Fair Rents Act does not apply to farming: property. X.A.—The Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Act, ISKSO, provides that where the amount secured on any land has been reduced it shall not be lawful, except with the leave of the Court, granted upon such terms and conditions as the Court thinks fit, for the owner for the tim'e being of the land to sell or otherwise dispose of the same at any time before January 1, 1941. In addition to the above, where the Court varies the terms of a mortgage it may impose such terms as it thinks fit. You do not quote sufficient of the order to ascertain whether any special terms wero attached to the extension of the mortgage. Butter-fat.—The rate of interest on mortgages has not been reduced to 4% per cent, tor the purposes of the Mortgagors' Rehabuiation Act the rate has been fixed at a maximum of 4% per cent on mortgages of land. This will only apply to mortgages where an application for relief has been made nnd is successful. Married Farm Hand.—lf the dairy farm worker received £3 per week, which is the statutory wage, plus 17s (id por week board, the employer need not supply him with board, lighting or accommodation, lhe statutory holidays are 28 days per annum reduced to 14 days if a full half-holiday is allowed every week. Compulsion.—lnsurance against payment of compensation to workers for accidents covered by tho Workers' Compensation Act is not compulsory. A.B.C: —A live hedge sufficiently well grown may be accepted by adjoining occupiers as a boundary fence. Even if one occupier disagrees a magistrate may, in the case of dispute, absolve the other from liability ; to fence. But except by agreement an adjoining occupier could not be called upon to jontribute half the cost of planting such | a hedge. Perplexed.—l. Depreciation on wooden premises earning income allowed for incmne tax purposes is 3 per cent on the original ; cost. '2. The claim for exemption is under i part "D." No. 4 on income tax return, amount paid as interest tax on Government securities." This applies to the stamp duty or tax imposed by the Government ! on unconverted loans. 3. Dividends on shares | from Australian banks are not liable for | New Zealand income tax, but are liable for i employment charge. j G.J.—The procedure is to obtain a licence from the registrar of marriages. One party ! must have been resident in the district three nights. The total fees, including the marriage at the Registry Office, are £2 ss. Wondering.—The payment of 17s 6d to you is in lieu of board and your employer is under no obligation to provide you with lighting or fuel. Muggins.—Under the 1936 Workers' Compensation Amendment Act the amount payable to a worker covered by the Act is twothirds of the worker's weekly earnings at the time of the accident, or £2 per week, whichever is the larger. The Act came into force on January 1, 1937. Prior thereto the amount was two-thirds of the average weekly earnings or £l. The allowance for medical expenses is still £l. Support.—Proceedings, if taken, will be nnder the Destitute Persons Act. and it will be for a magistrate to determine what is under the circumstances a reasonable amount for the son to contribute toward the support of his mother. The amount claimed by the department seems excessive and would probably be reduced by the magistrate. The best course seems to be for the son to make a reasonable offer and if it is refused leave the matter to the magistrate. r.TI. —Since the unimproved value of your farm property does not exceed £3OOO you are not liable for income tax on your net income from your farming operations. Since vour income exceeds £2lO per annum, you will be liable for income tax on any income from other sources. You are not entitled to deduct depreciation on the house you have rented. Fence. —Since you received no notice to fence as provided by the Fencing Act before the fence was commenced and completed you are now under no obligation to contribute toward the cost of the fence. D.S.—You cannot have it both ways. The Fair Rents Act was designed to protect tenants from high rents. In your case the magistrate has decreed an increase, and you must pay the increased rent or vacate the piemises. No doubt the landlady has committed an offence against the Stamp Duties Act by receipting the rent bookweekly where the sum you have paid was for more than a week and exceeded £2. If you wish, you can lay an information against her —(i) If you can prove that the article has been substantially misrepresented you can return the same and demand any money you have paid back. (2) It is presumed that people who append their signature to any document have first read the same through. If you can show that you have been ~ deliberately misled you have a remedy, but not otherwise. A signature in pencil is binding, except where by statute or agreement a signature in ink is specified. Anxious, Ngongotaha.—Even before the very considerable extension of liability effected sbv the Workers' Compensation Amendment Act 1930, you would have been liable as the employer of a worker engaged in an occupation involving a risk of fallinc 12ft. or more. Your safe course is to insure against liability. Inquirer.—Tho old-age pension of a married pensioner is not affected unless the joint income of the. married couple, together with any pension granted, exceeds £lO9. Illness. —You have no claim against your father-in-law or your brother-in-law for maintenance under the Destitute Persons Act. You have no claim against your employer for a week's wages. If you are permanently incapacitated from work you can apply for the invalidity pension. J.A.8., Taupiri.—You are entitled to deduct a reasonable allowance for depreciation on the milking machine, The correct way appears to be to take the useful life of the machine and to divide the cost by the number of years of such life. B.A. —Although the payment of sustenance Is a matter of discretion, if you apply the money you receive from the sale of one property in payment of tho mortgage on your home your sustenance should not be affected. K. 232. —You are bound by the terms of the hire purchase agreement, unless there is a clause therein enabling you to return the furniture or the dealers voluntarily accept tho furniture back. From the facts in your letter there is some evidence that the dealers have adopted tho latter course, but this is not clear. Digger.—A suit for restitution of conjugal rights where an order is granted but disobeyed does not make it in any way obligatory on the petitioner to proceed further for a divorce. Except in very exceptional circumstances a wife who disobeyed the Court order would not be granted maintenance or alimony. J.E.C.—You will have to pay employment charge on the total amount of your income, small as it is, unless you can obtain exemption on the grounds of hardship, which, in your case is very possible. If there is a chance of your recovery you will not be granted the invalidity pension, which is granted only in the case of incapacity. Handy Andy.—Unless your father has mado application under the Mortgagors' Rehabilitation Act be must comply with the terms of the bill of sale given to the factory, and if such terms are so harsh that they do not enable him to pay the necessary wages at the statute rates he must give up the farm, unless ho can get his employees to obtain under-ratc. permits (the granting of which is unlikely), or persuade the factory to release sufficient money for payment of the full wage. Anxious. —You will not hs entitled to the widow's pension unless you legally adopt the child. Application for an order of adoption is made through the Magistrate's Court. Only the mother's consent is necessary in the case of an illegitimate child. As to registration, your best course is to see the registrar of births, and explain tho position to him. Farm Hand.—lf you can prove an agreement on the part of your employer to employ you for the full season, and he fails or refuses to keep such agreement, you can sue him for damages. You will in any case be entitled to approximately 16 days' holiday on full pay, plus Ss f)d per week board allowance.

Cow Spanker.—You should he able to get. an advance from the State Advances Corporation to at least the amount of twothirds of the valuation of your property at ..4Y, per rent, reducible ,to 4% per cent "per annum, if paid within 14 days. Assurance.—Every life assurance office must supply to the Government certain particulars, including the scalo of surrender values of its policies. Your only method is to get the assurance company to show you how they work out the surrender value, and to check it with the scale. The Act is administered by the Minister of Finance.