Snookers v. Snookers
Brisbane Courier, 2 June 1906
Arbitration court.
Snookers v. Snookers.
This was a case in which Emily Snookers, a married woman, asked for a ruling of the court limiting her hours of domestic labour, defining their days off, and fixing also the amount of pin money and weekly housekeeping expenses she should be allowed by her husband. Phillip Snookers, Plaintiff claimed that eight hours was sufficient for the laborious domestic duties she performed, that she should in addition be allowed every other Sunday off, and that her pin money should at least be equal to the wages of an ordinary domestic. She claimed, moreover, that, while men could obtain domestic service by marriage, free of wages, simply for food and lodging, they would not employ domestics, and such conditions were inimical to the wages of all domestics. The defendant, Phillip Snookers, entered the box, and stated that he had married Emily Snookers under an implied agreement that she should scrub, cook, wash, and mend for him, in return for food and clothing. The marriage contract was really an Industrial Agreement, by which he had loyally abided, but witch, his wife was now asking the court to set aside. The I court held that the marriage contract not an Industrial Agreement under the Arbitration Act.