H.—ll

16

December, 1905. Auckland. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Following on the case against Peter Franchi (see October), a further civil case under section 7, subsection (c), was taken for failing to pay for overtime. Claim admitted, and full amount of overtime and costs (£2) paid without going into Court. Palmerston North. —(Factories Act) : Ethel Henderson, dressmaker, " Victoria House," was fined £2, with £1 10s. costs, for keeping grrls employed all day without an interval for meals. Masterton. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Myers Caselberg, manager, Wairarapa Farmers' Co-operative Association, was fined 10s., with 7s. costs, on each of three charges for employing assistants after hours of closing prescribed. Pahiatua. —(Shops and Offices Act) : John Henry Allan Campbell, draper, was fined £1, with 7s. costs, for failing to close his shop at 9 p.m. on Saturday, the 11th November, in accordance with a requisition of shopkeepers fixing the hours of closing for the borough. Wellington. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Ying Lee and Wong She, Chinese storekeepers, were each charged with employing assistants after the hours of closing prescribed. Ying Lee was fined £2, with £2 2s. solicitor's fee, and 9s. Court costs. In the latter case the accused pleaded that the alleged employees were his partners. His Worship remarked that if this plea of partnership should prove to be a Chinese way of evading the law it was very likely to react upon them in the form of special legislation to prevent " partners " working longer hours than shop-assistants proper. In the present case, however, on the evidence before him, he must hold that partnership relations had been established, and he did not see how partners_could be assistants. He must, therefore, reluctantly dismiss the information. " I should say," he added, " that they (the Chinese) are making a rod for their own backs." Christchurch. —(Factories Act) : A. G. Middlemiss, pastrycook, was fined £1, with 7s. costs, on each of two charges — (a) For failing to grant a half-holiday on Saturday afternoon to a lad under eighteen years of age ; and (b) for failing to keep time and wages books. Dunedin. —(Shops and Offices and Electoral Acts) : Edward Towsey, tobacconist, was fined 10s., with £1 Bs. costs, for failing to close his shop at 1 o'clock on Wednesday, the 6th December, general election day. Accused contended that, as he had elected in January last to close on Saturday for the weekly half-holiday, he thought he was not compelled to close on election day. January, 1906. Christchurch. —(Factories Act) : G. W. J. Parsons, monumental mason, was charged with failing to grant half-holiday to lad under sixteen years of age. Fined 10s., with 7s. costs. John Gilmore, pastrycook, was indicted on three charges of—(1) Failing to register his bakehouse ; (2) failing to grant the weekly half-holiday to a lad ; (3) employing a boy without his having a certificate of fitness. For the first and second offences he was fined 10s., with 7s. costs for each. The final charge was then dismissed. E. C. Brown, manager, D.1.C., was charged with employing a girl under sixteen years of age without a certificate of fitness, and with employing another girl who was under fourteen years of age. Defendant admitted the charge, but said the girls had been employed without his knowledge. He had taken steps to rectify the irregularity. As this was a first case, and Inspector did not wish to press for penalty, the cases were dismissed. February, 1906.* Whangarei. —(Shops and Offices Act) : J. W. McGregor was fined £2, with £1 Bs. costs, for employ ing an assistant after the prescribed hours. On a similar charge George A. Court was fined 10s., with 7s. costs. For failing to close on the statutory half-holiday, Harrison and Sons were fined 10s., with 75." costs. Auckland. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Thomas Kwai, Chinese restaurateur, was charged with— (1) failing to give two waitresses in his employ the weekly half-holiday, (2) employing same more than fifty-two hours in one week. From inquiries, the Inspector had ascertained that they had worked from seventy to seventy-five hours per week. The Magistrate, after warning accused that a heavy fine would be inflicted for a further breach, imposed a penalty of £2, with £1 12s. costs (10s. on each charge). New Plymouth. —(Shops and Offices Act) : James Scanlon, manager of the Melbourne Clothing Company, was fined 55., with £1 Bs. costs, for employing assistants after the prescribed hours. Wanganui, —(Factories Act) : Hopeful Gibbons, Wanganui Brewery, was fined 55., with £2 11s. costs, for failing to report accident in factory to Inspector. On a similar charge David and Alfred Kendrick, brickmakers, Aramoho, were fined 10s., with £2 18s. costs. Masterton. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Wong Way Kee, Chinese storekeeper and grocer, was fined £1, with 7s. costs, for failing to close his shop in accordance with a requisition duly gazetted on the 10th May, 1905, directing that all grocers', clothiers', and. drapers' shops be closed at 6 o'clock p.m. on four nights of the week. Wellington. —(Shops and Offices Act) : W. F. Ross, tobacconist, Willis Street, was charged with failing to close his shop at 8 o'clock p.m. on four nights of the week in accordance with a requisition from tobacconists and hairdressers to the Minister of Labour under " The Shops and Offices Act, 1904," gazetted on the 21st December, 1905. The information was dismissed, with £2 2s. costs against the Department. (See full report of case, Labour Journal, March, 1906, page 216.) H. Grant, tobacconist