CONTRACTS BY MEN OF STRAW.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13103, 17 June 1913, Page 8

CONTRACTS BY MEN OF STRAW.

(Per Press Association.)

WjELLINGTON, last night, A suggestion of interest to the building trade was made by counsel m the Magistrate's Court to-day bffore Dr M-: Arthur j S.M.-, during the hear.nj; .. a civil case under the Wages Pic ection and Contractors' Liens Act. In x.'i.-wing attention to the very large .number of 1 civil actions arising t out uf iv.s Act which had been before his "Woii-hip during the last 18 months or tw o jaatr, counsel said that the matter called for a • magisterial,, pronouncement. ,U,e . I'^d one case m which a man who was piaciioally, bankrupt undertook a tu"jcing ©ontaact,. and., through being m.able to meet, his liabilities, deprived the subcontractors and traders — poor .ti.-.n— of ,the whole of th« money that was o ue. to them. Most of the work vis on subcontractors' own labor, and ♦he Vnrotr's default . meaVit , that they had 1 ,st tl;eir wages* :• TJhi||,:,w_as only one tf i sinjerous similar cases. The practice n.en of straw undertaking building contracts was so common that it behoved master btuilders an# architects to derisie .a means by which no person , wuu'<l loe given a" contract unless he sub'uitt«d evidence that he was a man 0,l . f-pbt stance.