1907.] Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906. 



287 



(c) If the injury is proved to be due to serious and wilful 

 misconduct on his part, no claim to compensation is to be 

 allowed unless the injury results in death or serious and 

 permanent disablement. 



Persons entitled to Compensation. — The Act applies to any 

 " workman." but the term " workman " is used in a special 

 sense, being defined to mean " any person who has entered 

 into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship 

 with an employer, whether by way of manual labour, clerical 

 work, or otherwise, and whether the contract is expressed or 

 implied, is oral or in writing." This definition is very wide 

 and may be said to cover every case in which two people 

 stand to each other in the relation of master and servant. 

 But a few classes of persons are by the Act expressly excluded. 

 These are as follows : — 



(a) Persons not employed in manual labour whose remunera- 

 tion exceeds £250 a year. Thus clerks, school teachers, &c. 

 who are not " manual labourers," are excluded if they are 

 earning more than £250 a year. 



(b) Any person whose employment is of a casual nature and 

 who is employed otherwise than for the purposes of the 

 employer's trade or business. 



If may be difficult in particular cases to say whether a 

 workman who has been given a casual job, has or has not 

 been employed for the purposes of the employer's business ; 

 but, as a rule, the question should be easily answered. For 

 example, when a dock labourer is engaged by a dock company 

 to help in the unloading of a ship, his work may be of a casual 

 nature, but he is employed for the purposes of the company's 

 business, and is therefore within the Act while so employed. 

 Again, the extra hands whom a farmer engages for haymaking 

 or harvesting are employed casually, but their employment 

 is for the purposes of the farmer's business, and they will 

 therefore come within the Act. On the other hand, a boy 

 who is engaged by the ordinary traveller to carry his bag 

 or other personal luggage to or from the station, or a 

 tramp engaged out of charity to clear away snow from 

 the door-steps of a dwelling-house, could not be said to 

 be employed for the purposes of the employer's trade or 

 business. 



