HULK-KEEPER'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1918, Page 7

HULK-KEEPER'S DEATH

'£500 COMPENSATION AWARDED,

A claim for compensation was heard at the Arbitration Court .to-day. On the Bench were hip. Honour Mr. Justice Stringer, Mr. W. Scott (employers' representative), and Mr. J. A. M'CnlJoagh. (workers' representative). Eliza- Mary M'C&nn, widow, Wellington, for whom. Mr. I\ J. O'Begau appeared, claimed from the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd., represented, by Mr. P. Levi. compensation for the death of her husband, Joseph M'Cann, luilkkeeper in charge of the hulk Tobias, who was accidentally drowned or. 24th July, 1918, such accident arising out cf and in the course of his 'employment. The widow said that she was a total dependent on the earnings of her late husband, and claimed £500 by way of comj pensation, together with funeral expenses and coeis. The defendant company admitted, that Joseph M'Cann was, on the date in ques- : tion, iii charge of the hulk Tobias, but ! denied timt the plaintiff was a total de- ! pendent on the contributions of the said I Joseph it'Cami. In her evidence, plaintiff said she. lived in Mataj-road, Kataitai. She lived there because, of certain family affairs which had to be attended to," but she was. wholly dependent oh the £2 a week which she received from her late husband. Mr. P. Levi said the company might have raised the question as to proof of accident arising out of tha course of his employment, but" it did not wish to in-, sist on the point. The company did not contest the case, but desired that the matter should be dealt with in the ordinary way by the Court, a.nd a judgment'given, because of the circumstances. The Court awarded plaintiff £500—the amount of the claim —£15 15s funeral expenses, and £5 5s costs.