A SHEARERS' CASE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12657, 27 January 1910, Page 3

A SHEARERS' CASE.

(Per Press Association.) i I>A.NNKVIRKE. last night. A case of interest to sheepfarmers was called on at the • Court to-day, wlnen 'the Inspector of Awards for Hawke's Bay claimed' from Mrs Fraiix_*'n, a sheepfarmer, of Titree Point, the sum of £500 as penalty for an offence under section 5 of the -Industrial Con-' ciliation and Arbitration Act. 1908. The following are the particulars of the alleged offence : ,The defendant, being a person bound by the Wellington shearers' award, dated April 'A', 1908. did, on November 3rd. 1909, employ seven shearers, and, further, on November, 4, 1909. did lock-out the said shearers, and thus became a party to a ' lock-out in the sheep-shea.-rng industry, in the County of Weber. For the prosecution, it was alleged that the men refused on more than one occasion to shear 'sheep because they were wet, and that the defendant's son «iid to the men, "Either .sh«;ir the sheen or take your cheques." The. men iook their cheques. Ii was contended bv the Inspector that the action cf Fr*"i'--j lin in giving an alternative t-> the men] constituted! a lock-out. The .Magistrate dec\'ned to decide the .point off-hand, and evidence for the defence is bem-j; heard to-ni^ht. , The oue<-tion is whe ther. under the award, the shearers were I ' "justified in refusing tp shear the sheep because they were wet. '