PARTY TO DISPUTE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19460, 6 November 1928, Page 10

PARTY TO DISPUTE.

MR G. T. BOOTH AND THE COURT. (PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEOBAit.) AUCKLAND, November 5. An unusual application, the first of its kind in the Dominion, has been made to the Arbitration Court by the Amalgamated Engineers' Federation in connexion with the hearing of the General Engineers' and Moulders' disputei in Christchurch next Tuesday. The employees have applied to the Minister for Labour to arrange for the employers' assessor on the Court, Mr G. T, Booth, to vacate temporarily his seat in accordance with the Arbitration Act, which provides that when a permanent member of the Court is himself a party to a dispute, and is consequently unable to act as a member, another nominated member may act in his stead. The reason for the application is that Mr Booth, prior to his appointment to the Court, wns managing-director of Booth, Macdonald and Company, Limited, manufacturers of agricultural implements, and as such Was a large em* ployer of labour interested in the engineering industry. -If the demand is successful, Mr S. E. Wright, deputyassessor for the employers, and secretary of the Auckland Employers' Association, will take Mr Booth's place.