ARBITRATION COURT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 15 August 1924, Page 2

ARBITRATION COURT

A FORCED A DJOUHNMENT

INSUFFICIENT • ACCOMMODATION

The Arbitration Court was compelled to adjourn at .Wellington yesterday’, as it had no room with sufficient' ftccontmotltillott in which. to. conduct’ its business. The Court was to baye'hiet’in the boardroom of the Dominion Farmers’ Insti-

tute (the Conference Hall, In which the Court had been sitting having been previously engaged by the Harbours* Association), The boardroom is. small,, and tlie number of witnesses and. others engaged in the drivers’ Dominion disputa was large. The result-was that it wns found quite impossible for those engaged in the ease to get sitting-room. Mr B. L. Hammond, employers’ representative, uttered a strong ’ protest against having to go on with the case under the existing circumstances. /ho room was small, inconvenient, and quite

inadequate. It was impossible for those conducting the case to confer '"with-ethers engaged in the ease, or with their witnesses without being overheard by the other side. In his experience <f over

seventeen years in tlie Magistrate's Court, -'tli'eVArbitration-'‘ Court, and Dio Supreme Court,':-this was the worst provision for a Court that ho had known Mr A. Parlane,' representing the Drivers’ Federation, ’ also made a strong protest, and suggested that'the adjournment should be as short as-possible, as there was a number of witnesses from a distance who were anxious to get- away. Air Justice Frazer said the rqom . Was so small and was so crowded by those

engaged in- the case, that’ it 'soeihed (impossible to properly; conduct the - pioceedings uncler the conditions. So far as the question of permanent, accoinirod ition Tor- the Court was concerned, he had ■no further information than lie possessed when the matter was mentioned a tew days ago, when he stated that- he uvJerstood that the ’Government'’ had a' comprehensive building scheme under consideration.

The Court adjourned till the afternoon. A room in the Accountants’ Chambers Was secured for the afternoon 3 sitting of the Court.' ( - ,v - =