CONDUCT OF MEETINGS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 123, 19 February 1944, Page 2

CONDUCT OF MEETINGS

Conciliation Council The following eomment for the guid-, ance of parties, to conciliation council' proceedings' was made yesterday by Mr.! A. B. Rigg, conciliation commissioner,' during the hearing of a dispute bet. ween: th§ Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Assoeia-! tion and the New Zealand Theatre and) Places of Amusement Employees’ Union:' “The statute under which we are' working does not lay down anything ini the way of a detailed procedure for the. conduct of these meetings, and I can only] infer that the intention is that such procedure should have the maximum elastic-; ity so that there shall be nothing to ham-1 per the fulfilment of the purpose fori which a council is created, namely, thej reaching of a settlement of the matters' in dispute between the parties. "At the same time it must be remem--bered that the council is a statutory body' having what are virtually legislative pow-i ers, the lawful decisions reached here be-? ing ultimately incorporated in the indus-i trial law of the land. It is therefore the! duty of all members of the council to co-! operate in conducting the proceedings with fitting dignity and decorum. My views in this connexion arc supported by! reference to the Act. under which a-Conn-i cil of Conciliation is accorded the same' protection as a Court of Law in respect' of any behaviour amounting to contempt.; This does not mean that meetings should-

be stiffly formal. On the contrary they; should be as informal as possible, but informality is not inconsistent with the maintaining of dignity. “The atmosphere at meetings of these councils should, as the name implies, be conciliatory in nature, that is (in the words of Mr. Justice Tyndall) there should be a spirit of ‘sweet reasonableness.’ It is unavoidable that there should be widely different points of view between the parties in a dispute of this kind, and a member may quite often feel an inclination to make a sharp retort. I need hardly say. however, that heated feelings are fatal to a conciliatory atmosphere, and moreover, it must be evident to. all that the other fellow is much more likely to view with favour an argument expressed in a reasonable and courteous manner. “I therefore earnestly hope, and I expect, that in all councils over which I may preside, the members will always endeavour to be courteous with each other, and thus help themselves, and me, to reach, in the most pleasant way. the greatest possible measure of agreement on the matters in dispute,”