GENEROUS MUSICIANS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3798, 8 April 1913, Page 7

GENEROUS MUSICIANS.

GIVE HALF THEIR SALARIES BACK.

A REMARKABLE CASE,

[PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.] AUCKLAND, April 7. An interesting case occupied the attention of the Arbitration Court today, wlieiv Brooks Bros., proprietors of the Windsor Picture Theatre, in Ponsonby Road, wero charged with having committed a breach of the award of the Auckland Performing Musicians Union by paying members of their orchestra less than - award rates.

Mr Johns, Inspector of Awards, prosecuted, and Mr Pullen defended. Mr Johns, in outlining the case, said that under the award musicians should he paid £3 a week for six performances and one matinee. Defendants, it-was alleged, had paid two members of the orchestra 30s a week. When Mr Leonard Brooks had been ap proached on the matter, he had produced his wages book, which set forth that £3 a week had beon paid to each musician every week. His explana tion was that-he allowed musicians who received short payment 30 reserved seats a week in his theatre to make up full award rate. Ernest Alfred Lowery, a member oT the Musicians’ Union, stated that he had been engaged in defendants’ orchestra for 12 months. When the new award came into force he was only getting 30s a. week, and offered to take thirty shillings’ worth -of seats to make up the difference. He did it to help Mr Brookes, as he knew he could not afford to pay full rate. Mr Brooks always handed him his full £3 on Saturday, and on Monday witness would pay him back 30s.

To His Honor: Witness used about IS or 20 of the seats everv week.

His 'Honor : Which really means you are spending 30s a week of your money on free seats for your friends. To Mr Johns: Witness never received less than £3. Witness left" Brooks’ employ. His Honor: How did your friends

get in? Witness: I introduced them at the door or they mentioned my name. Herr Renrich Peter Ibsen Henrick-sen,-*who formerly played the violin in Brooks’ orchestra, gave evidence similar to that of the previous witness. To His Honor: On rush nights, after S o’clock, the free seats were no longer kept reserved. He thought the average number of seats his friends used would be about fifteen a week. ‘Hubert Sapsford, another member of the orchestra, also gave evidence. Mr (Johns read section 210 of. the Industrial. Conciliation and Arbitration Act, providing that any employer who adopted methods with the intention of defeating the end of an award would be deemed to have committed a breach of the award. Mr Pullen, for the defence, said that to have paid the full rate would have been impossible for Mr Brooks, aild the musicians would have been thrown out of employment like' many others had been. They approached the proprietors, and made the arrangement already mentioned. They were quite entitled to use half their money, or even the whole of it, for that matter, if they desired to do so, on purchasing seats.’

Leonard Brooks, oue of the defendants, said that upon the new award expressed a desire to help him, as being made, the men came to him and they realised that he could not afford to pay the increased rate. They suggested that he pa}- them the £3, and then they would pay him 30s back, on condition that they were allowed 30 free seats. To Mr Gohns: Witness had never stated to him (Mr Gohns) that he was paying less than the award rate. Bernard Brooks, the other defendant, said he had personally paid musicians £3 a week, and they had paid him for seats reserved. William Ernest Ewart, violinist, said he. had been employed by Brooks for a fortnight past at £3 a week. He had never been asked to accept less than that amount. Ho had also worked for him in November for a fortnight at £3 a week. Witness had asked Mr Brooks if he could reserve seats, and Mr Brooks had replied that ho could please himself about it. Witness reserved 30 seats in a fortnight, and they were all used. No persuasion whatever was used by Mr Brooks to get witness to buy seats. His Honor: You voluntarily ask us to believe that you offered to buy seats and to pay for them? Witness was at this stage overcome with an attack of faintness, and was ted out of Court. Arthur Richards, the next witness, denied that he had been paid 30s and 7s Od, instead of the full rate of 12s a performance for casual employment in the orchestra at the theatre. The Court reserved judgment.