A BUSY TRIBUNAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11292, 18 August 1922, Page 5

A BUSY TRIBUNAL

THE ARBITRATION COURT HEARING OF DISPUTES GREATLY HAMPERED. PROCEEDINGS INTERRUPTED. The present sitting in Wellington of tho Arbitration Court is probably the most strenuous in the history of the court. A very lengthy list of eases has been set down, and the business will keep the members occupied for some weeks yet before they remove to another centre. The hearing was resumed yesterday of the seamen’s and firemen’s dispute, involving a class of ivork in which the court has not been asked to adjudicate for many years. This case will occupy several days, running into late next weekAn even more important case of Dominion importance will be the waterside workers’ dispute, which will be resumed as soon ns the seamen’s dispute is disposed of, and to which a full fortnight has been allotted. COURT’S UNENVIABLE POSITION. The unenviable position of the president of the court and his two assessors is appreciated by both employers and employees, and the court has appealed oeveral times si non the present sittings opened for the avoidance of unnecessary prolongation of argument. As Mr justice Frazer pointed out the other day, a mass of detailed and lengthy technical evidence has already been taken in several other disputes, and as soon as the court rises for the day, it has to turn back upon a former case in the evening and deliberate upon the framing of the award. A WANDERING COURT. The work of the court is being hampered somewhat through having to transfer from one meeting room to another. Three different chambers ai the Magistrate’s and Supreme Courtbuildings have been used during tho past week, »ud to-day sitting hae had to be abandoned as no courtroom if available. Before the court adjourned yester day- the president expressed regret that the case could not be resumed till Saturday, and explained th« difficulties with which they were contending. The secretary of the Wellington Sea men’s Union (Mr WT. Young) emphatically protested his dissatisfaction at the interruption in tho continuity of such an important case.