ARBITRATION COURT.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17061, 4 February 1921, Page 6

ARBITRATION COURT.

STATUS OF THE JUDGE. (press association telegram.) "WELLINGTON, February 3. The Attorney-General has issued the following statement:— "There seems to exist some misapprehension as to the status and position of the Hon. Mr Justice Frazer, who lias recently been appointed Judge of the Arbitration Court, and my attention (has been called to some paragraphs which have recently appeared .in certain newspapers suggesting that the Government imposed conditions Sn the case of the present Judge, rendering the position lie holds, in some aspects, inferior to the position of his predecessors in office. That is not the case. The Government .lias neither the power. nor the flcsire, to impose any saoli conditions. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1938, provides expressly tfhafe a Judge of the Arbitration Court shall, as to tenure of office, salary, emoluments, and privileges (.including superannuation allowance), liave the same rights, and! bo subject to tho same provisions, as a Judge of the Supremo Court; and it also provides that- the Arbitration Act shall operate as a. perin a - nent appropriation of his salary. His Honour, tCierefore, has all the rank, privileges, and .immunities, of a. Judge of the Supreme Court. But, by other provisions of the Arbitration Act and its amendments, a Judge of the Arbitration Court may, on an emergency, be appointed to bo a temporary Judge of the Supreme Court, to perform the ordinary functions of a Judge of that Court, and, alternatively, a Judge of the Arbitration Court may be appointed permanently a Judge of the Supremo Court, and bs called upon to give part of his time to tho duties of tfliat Ccurt. It is considered by the Government to be inadvisable that tho Judge of the Arbitration Court should be detached from the, business of that Court to assist m the ordinary work of the Supreme Court when tho work of tho latter Court falls in arrear for any reason, and before the offer of the appointment was made to Mr Frazer, it had been decided •by the Government thai the work of tho Arbitration Court ongfht not to be interfered with and delayed by any exigencies of another Court, and that, therefore, in future, the Government would abstain from exercising its power of utilising a Judge of the Arbitration Court for the purposes of the business of tho Supreme Court?. Mr Frazer -was notified of thq.t decision, and of tilie reasons for it, when the offer of tho appointment was made to him, and lie entirely agreed with both decisions and the reasons for them.