Oral Answers to Questions — British Guiana. – in the House of Commons at on 17 December 1941.
Mr. David Adams:
asked the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies whether he has yet received information regarding the enactment of the code of labour legislation in British Guiana; and whether steps are being taken to consider the application of minimum wage Laws in this territory?
Mr George Hall
, Merthyr Tydfil Aberdare
The Labour Bill, which contains minimum wage provisions, received its first reading in the Legislative Council of the Colony on 4th December.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
