ARBITRATION QUESTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 5

ARBITRATION QUESTIONS.

» j APPEALS BY INSPECTOR. I ONE DECISION UPSET. (By Telegraph. —Press Association.) CKEYMOUTH, this day. The Arbitration Court allowed an appeal by Mr. Tyson, Inspector of Awards, against a magistrate's decision of February 12, dismissing a charge against local tobacconists who had opened their shops on New Year's Eve in addition to the ordinary latts night in the same week. The magistrate held that the opening was permitted by clause 20 of the award. Mr. Justice Frazer to-day said nothing in the award could operate in contradiction of the Shops and Offices Act. The Court had delegated legislative powers, but could not go contrary to the Act any more than could a local j body in contravention of the Municipal Corporations Act. Mr. Tyson also appealed for a ruling as to whether the Watersiders' Union was justified in refusing membership to' a certain applicant, against whom there was no strong evidence of bad character or inebriety. The Union secretary (Mr. Kirk) stated that two men left work on the wharf owing to applicant's behaviour, and that several complaints were received from other watersiders respecting applicant's alleged bullying habits. . Applicant, he said, was expelled from the union for arreas in subscriptions, which later were paid. He then applied for readmission. Applicant had used abusive language towards Mr. Kirk. Judge Frazer declared that within the strict legal definition, "good character" might cover applicant's case, and his reasonable sobriety was unquestioned. The question of the union's justification in refusing membership would lead to a broader interpretation of "character," which included temperament, etc. The Court could not hold the union's action frivolous, and therefore the right to preference was unsacrificed.