SCRAGGS vs. THE WORKINGTON

LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH.

The case of "SCRAGGS versus The Workington Local Board of Health" which was tried at the Cockermouth County Court on Wednesday, is one which possesses considerable interest for the public.

Mr. SCRAGGS is the proprietor of a music hall at Workington, and in Christmas week he engaged several perform,ers to give an entertainment in it. The prices to the entertainment are fixed at sixpence and threepence, and there was a fair audience.

Everything went on swimmingly up to a certain point, and then to the horror of Mr. SCRAGGS, the confusion of the performers, and the dismay of the audience, the gas went out and left the place in a darkness as profound as that of Egypt. Lights were procured as quickly as possible, and Mr. SCRAGGS, finding that the performance could not be proceeded with owing to the want of gas, requested to the people to leave the hall and offered to return them their money. When he came to do this he was astonished at the number of sixpenny seats that had been occupied.

The action which he brought on Tuesday was to recover the sum of £20 which, he alleged, he had lost through the neglect of the Local Board to supply his hall with gas. The neglect was admitted, and the defective supply, it appears, was owing to the drunkenness of some of the servants of the Board; but it was pleaded by Mr. PAISLEY, who represented the Board, that his clients had entered into no contract to supply gas to Mr. SCAGGS, and that they could cut off the supply at any time.

The plea is an extremely shabby shabby one, and the Local Board ought to be ashamed of it. We hope that when Mr. INGHAM gives his decision in the case, which he has promised to do at the next sitting of his court, it will be found that the plea is illegal as well as shabby, and that even the Workington Local Board of Health is not at liberty to play the game "Heads I win; Tails you lose."

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