“MILES BEHIND ENGLAND”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19959, 17 November 1934, Page 7

“MILES BEHIND ENGLAND”

SOME ASPECT'S OF NEW ZEALAND LAW By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, November 16. A statement that New Zealand was miles behind England in some of its legislation was made during the hearing of a case in the Wellington Supreme Court to-day. The question of whether the right at common law to claim damages was available to an apprentice whose contract incorporated statutory terms and remedies was under discussion at the time, and it was pointed out that in a previous case the Full Court in dealing with apprentices held that an apprentice was limited by the Apprenticeship Act to the remedies imposed thereby, because that Act and its amendments formed a complete code governing apprentice matters. It was argued by counsel for the defendants that all possible contingencies were meant to be covered by the 1923 Act, and that if any further contingencies arose they were met by the amendments. “We are miles behind England in legislation which you would think would be altered here,” said Mr Justice Reed. “For instance, in the protection of miners working in a coal mine we are miles behind England. Attention has been drawn to it but no alteration has been made.”