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LEGAL DECISIONS DURING THE YEAR 1906-7.' APRIL, 1900. Auckland. —(Shops and Offices Act) : Two chemists were charged with having failed to close their shops at 8 p.m. on four nights of the week in accordance with requisition from chemists fixing the hours of closing, as per Gazette notice of Ist February, 1906, under the Shops and Offices Act. As these were the first cases of the kind the Magistrate said he would not impose a severe penalty, though he pointed out that defendants were liable to a very heavy fine. Penalty, £1, with £1 Bs. costs, in each case. Cambridge. —(Shops and Offices Act): A refreshment-room keeper was charged with— (1) Failing to give waitress half-holiday on one working-day of the week; and (2) employing same for more than fifty-two hours in one week. On the first charge accused was convicted and ordered to pay costs amounting to 75., and on the second he was fined £1, with 13s. costs. New Plymouth. —(Shops and Offices Act): A butcher and a grocer were each fined 55., with £1 Bs. costs, for employing assistants after the hours prescribed in their respective trades. Stratford. —(Shops and Offices Act): A Chinese storekeeper was fined 55., with £1 Bs. costs, for failing to close shop in accordance with a requisition of shopkeepers fixing the hours of closing, as per Gazette notice of 30th March, 1905. Wanganui.— (Shops and Offices Act): A baker was charged with failing to close his shop on the statutory half-holiday. Defendant sold bread from a cart in the street, and, therefore, was an occupier of a shop within the meaning of the Act. He promised to comply with the Act in future, and was nominally fined —10s., with 10s. costs. Christchurch. —(Factories Act): A saddle and harness maker was fined £1, with 7s. costs, for failing to give a half-holiday on Saturday afternoon to a lad under sixteen years of age. MAY, l_>o6. Auckland. —(Shops and Offices Act): A shopkeeper was fined £2, with 7s. costs, for failing to close his shop on the statutory half-holiday. Another shopkeeper was indicted on three charges of having employed assistants for more than fifty-two hours in one week. He was fined £1, with £2 Bs. costs, on one charge, and 10s., with 9s. costs, on each of the other two. A shopkeeper was similarly indicted on two charges, and fined £2, with £2 9s. lOd. costs (for the two). The Magistrate remarked that, as these Labour Acts were well known, a more severe penalty would be inflicted in future cases. Napier. —(Shops and Offices Act): A tobacconist and hairdresser was fined 10s., with 7s. costs, on each of three charges of employing assistants after the hours prescribed—viz., 8 p.m. on four working-days, and 10.30 on one day. (Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act): The secretaries of two unions were convicted for failing to send in annual returns of members, &c, as required by the Act. Wanganui. —(Factories .Act): A firm of tailors was charged with failing to pay wages fortnightly. Accused pleaded guilty, and illness in family. Penalty, £3 10s., with £1 16s. costs. Marton. —(Factories Act): A factory owner was charged with failing to notify Inspector of accident in factory. Accused pleaded ignorance of the Act, and stated that he had immediately after the accident notified the insurance company, and thought that that was all required of him. Penalty, £5, with 9s. costs. Palmerston North. —(Shops and Offices Act): A Chinese storekeeper was fined £1, with £1 Bs. costs, for employing an assistant after 9.30 p.m. on Saturday (the prescribed hour). Accused stated that he employed no assistant, and that the alleged assistant was a fellow-countryman who now and again paid him a friendly visit, and if he was busy assisted him. The Magistrate held that in that case the " friend " was an assistant under the Act. A second Chinese storekeeper was similarly charged, and fined £1, with £1 Bs. costs. A like case against a third Chinese storekeeper was dismissed, as it was explained there was no such person as the one charged. Dannevirke. —(Shops and Offices Act): A tobacconist was fined £1, with 7s. cost, for failing to close his shop on the statutory half -holiday. A Chinese storekeeper was also fined £1, with 7s. oosts, on each of three charges—two for same offence, and the other for failing to close at 6 p.m. in accordance with a gazetted requisition from shopkeepers. Wellington. —(Shops and Offices Act): A butcher was fined 10s., with 7s. costs, for failing to close his shop at 9 p.m., the hour fixed for closing by a gazetted requisition from shopkeepers in the trade. Christchurch. —(Shops and Offices Act): A bookseller and tobacconist, Lyttelton, was fined £1, with 7s. costs, for failing to close his shop on either the statutory half-holiday or on Easter Monday. Two tobacconists were each fined 55., with 7s. costs, for same offence. A firm of cyclemakers were charged with failing to close their shop at 9 p.m. on Saturday, in accordance with a gazetted requisition from shopkeepers in the trade. The information was dismissed, without costs, although the Magistrate considered a technical breach had actually taken place. An indictment against a firm of cycle-makers charging them with failing to close their shop on Easter Saturday in accordance with same Gazette notice was also dismissed, on the ground that there was no power to close shops for a whole day by requisition. The section merely provides for fixing the hours of closing in the evening. Six similar cases were then withdrawn. (Factories Act): A pastrycook was fined 55., with 7s. costs, for employing a lad under eighteen years of age in the bakehouse on Easter Monday. Defendant pleaded ignorance of the law.