ARBITRATION COURT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 24, 29 January 1923, Page 8

ARBITRATION COURT

NOMINEES FOR POSITION

CANDIDATES FOR LABOUR REPRESENTATION

EMPLOYERS' ASSESSORS RE-

APPOINTED.

Nominations for the positions of members and acting-members of the Arbitration Court closed at noon to-day. -There is only one nominee for each position in representation of the employers on the Court, but there are nine candidates for the office of workers' assessor and six for the position of deputy-assessor. There will be no change in the positions of assessor and deputy-assessor for the employers, for the gentlemen at, present in office have both been renominated without opposition, making a selection unnecessary. Mr. W. .Scott is reappointed nominated member, and, 1 Mr. B L. Hammond, who has acted as deputy since the death of Mr. W. Pryor, is returned again to that position. The candidates for the position of workers' assessors are as follow: — ' Thomas Blood worth (Auckland). Charles Henry Chapman (Wellington). Louis Frederick Evans (Dunedin). Hiram Hunter (Christchurch). Richard Matthew Lewis (Nelson). Michael John Reardon (Wellington). ' Christonher Renn (ChristchuTch). Henry' Richard Kushbridge (Christchurch). * Robert Slater (Dunedin). For the position -of workers' deputy assessor the following nominations have been received: — Frederick Daniel Cornwell (Wellington) Louis Frederick Evans (Dunedin). Lewis Ernest Gill (Nelson). / Francis Ernest Pearl (Christchurch). Christopher Renn (Christchurch). William Edward Sill (Auckland). The various unions are now being called upon to select from the_ lists of' nominees the persons they consider most desirable to fill the two positions. The Act requires that the recommendation from each union must be in accordance with a resolution passed at a special meeting of the union, and that it must be made within one month after the declaration of the nominations. The_ recommendations will therefore be received by the Registrar of. Industrial Unions at Wellington up till noon on sth March next. The Governor-General is then empowered to-make the final selection from the recommendations received,. taking into account the voting strength of the various unions. While the power of appointment actually rests with the Gov-' emor-in-Cooncil, however, there is no precedent for disregarding the selection by the unions. •» . ; Each union is allowed one. vote for each complete fifty memers. The maximum number of votes that may be recorded by any union is limited to five. This provision was made by amendment ot the original Act and its amendments during the last session of Parliament, and is strongly protested against by the stronger organisations, whose wings are clipped considerably, A union of a thousand members has no greater voting strength than a union of only two hundred and fifty members, a position which is, held by union officials to be unfaiiV and not calculated to allow fair represe*n-. tation. , It is the general- opinion in. labour circles that the restriction has been made with the object of taking power from the larger organisations which have a much larger membership than the smaller unionSj which are in the majority numerically through not in strength. .