COURT’S WIDE SCOPE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1935, Page 11

COURT’S WIDE SCOPE

ARBITRATION TRIBUNAL.

LAWS MADE AND ENFORCED.

Speaking on the functions of the work and the problems of the Arbitration Court in New Zealand at present Mr. Justice Fraser made some interesting remarks at the weekly luncheon of the New Plymouth Rotary Club yesterday. He explained that it was a specialised court to deal with problems of a peculiar nature. Its work generally was divided into two classes, industrial disputes and workers’ compensation matters. On the industrial side the court possessed wide powers, as it could not only act judicially but Parliament had also delegated to it legislative authority. That meant that the court could not. only make laws but also enforce them. It was a most peculiar power. “Naturally,” he continued, “we must act warily. An award may have to be in force for a year or even two years and we have to attempt to gauge conditions ahead. We must always keep in the closest touch with industrial and economic conditions that this can be done with reasonable accuracy.” In the case of workers’ compensation affairs the court had to act in a dual capacity. It had to consider a mass of law, one that was becoming larger and more intricate every day, and also to adjudicate upon medical matters. It was indeed a strange position for a court of

laymen to have to consider and adjudicate upon matters that were purely medical. However, in that regard he stated that he was under a deep debt of gratitude to the medical profession of New Zealand. Not only had many eminent medical men spent many hours instructing and helping him but all their evidence showed a careful preparation and a thorough study of every problem. “Doubtless you have heard many criticisms of us,” he said, “many stories of our pigheadedness, our lack of fairness and our numerous mistakes. However, when I look back upon the conglomeration of tasks that we have considered and been through I marvel at what we have done. We must have made mistakes but the wonder is that we did not make many more.”