SECOND ARBITRATION COURT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 10

SECOND ARBITRATION COURT

Those concerned with industrial matters will warmly approve the Government's bill, introduced in the Hofcse of Representatives yesterday, setting up an additional Arbitration Court on a temporary basis. This action comes belatedly. The business of the Court has become impossibly congested and subject to inordinate delays. Mr. Justice O'Regan said in September that his Court was overburdened with work, and again last month that two cases, affecting large groups of workers, had been waiting 'for more than a year, but that a date could not be fixed for a hearing. This accumulation of business has not occurred all in a moment, it follows upon the mass of new labour legislation passed last year. The Government is certainly blameworthy for not acting more promptly to relieve the pressure for which its own acts are responsible. It may be hoped that the efforts of the two Courts will effect an early clearance. The suggestion that one of the two should specialise in specified types of industrial cases to avoid conflict of opinions seems reasonable and the Minister of Labour should seek to give it effect. Compensation cases might also be concentrated in one Court. Another aid to despatch will bo the delegation to stipendiary magistrates and other legal officers of certain of the Court's less important functions. Apparently this provision is permanent and should realise Mr. Armstrong's expectation of reducing the toll at present placed on the Court's time. As there is provision for appeal from these lesser tribunals, no serious objection to the delegation should arise. As the need for the constitution of a second Court is urgent, the nomination by the Minister of the two members representing employers and workers respectively can scarcely be avoided unless much time is to be lost. At the least, however, Mr. Armstrong should consult with .and seek to satisfy the interested organisations before making the two appointnientß.