ARBITRATION COURT PROCEDURE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 8

ARBITRATION COURT PROCEDURE

QUESTION RAISED BY ADVOCATE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 29. In the Arbitration Court tc-day Mr Justice Tyndall declined to rule on the question of “blank lorms" being signed by assessors to be attached to the papers of partial ■ settlements reached in conciliation council.

At the start of .the case, a plasterers’ dispute, the employers’ aci ocate, Mr W. J. Mountjoy, submitted that the case was not properly out of conciliation as not all the parties on the employers’ side had agreed to the partial settlement. He also submitted that the memorandum of partial settlement was not valid, as some of the assessors’ signatures had been written on separate forms before the document was actually prepared and checked. Mr Mountjoy said that he made the submission principally to get a.ruling on this practice.

His Honour said that oa the question of the procedure of signing the documents “the Court prefers not to make any statement or announce any opinion or decision.” He added: “This is a matter that is well known now to conciliation commissioners and the department. I think it is for .hese authorities to consider the position. If the present state of affairs is unsatisfactory, then, perhaps, amending legislation would be the best course."