RAILWAY APPEAL CASES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14978, 26 April 1909, Page 6

RAILWAY APPEAL CASES.

There seems to have been an unconscionable delay in the publication of judgments in the railway appeal cases hoard in Christchurch early last month. Olio of tho four appeals was, as it happened, in the nature of a test caso. In 1907 an amended Railways Classification Act was passed, embodying a new schedule. The general expectation was that the ratc-s of pay in certain grades would ho increased, and that was, apparently, the effect of the

amending Act. But the Department put its own interpretation on the law, and seems to have carried out a fairly comprehensive reclassification ol tho sorvice. A largo number of men who had anticipated increases found themselves reduced in grade, and although the reduction involved no curtailment of salaries it prevented them from enjoying tho increases granted in the schedule of the now Act. A train examiner who had suffered reduction appealed against the classification, and tho case turned on the right claimed by the Department to reclassify tho service under the Act of 1907. Judgment in railway cases is not delivered ill the ordinary way, and tliero is no means of knowing whether tho Board has reported on the appeal or not. But it ia absurd to suppose that so simple an issuo would have to bo considered for six or seven weeks, and tho presumption is that the decision has been in the hands of tho Department for some time. Plainly it ought to have been published without a moment’s delay. Of course, if the appeal is uphold, the Department will havo to restore tho old classification and pay tho mon tho increases under the Act of 1907, and it has been suggested that publication of tho judgment is being delayed ill the hope that a judgment favourable to the Department may be obtained in another case. We trust that tliero is no warrant for this suggestion, but if the judgment in tho Christchurch case had been published within a reasonable period there would havo been no necessity for at least ono of tho appeals heard in Wellington last week.