ARBITRATION COURT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1449, 9 May 1905, Page 3

ARBITRATION COURT.

AN IMPORTANT DECISION,

'(Per* Press Association. l )'

4 Auckland, iass night. v , Au important decision was given by Mr Justice Chapman at the Arbitration Court to-d'sy on a technical point raised in the cooks* and stewards’ dispute. Au objection was raided that the union had failed to comply wMh the law in respeot of a special meeting to confirm the union’s decision to file a case. -,?he union’s secretary stated , that the resolution was confirmed at a speoial meeting half an hour after it was first passed. Mr Justice Chapman, after I a leDgthy consultation with his colleagues, I said it would be necessary to uphold the I objection. “ The result*'"’ he said, “of the I best consideration I hsve'Jbesn able to give I to this clause of the Act is - that the mean- J mg of the expression, * confirmed by a | subsequent ballot of member's,’ is that the | result of the meeting shall b.o communi- I cated to members at large, and their con- I firmation obtained by ballot. This parti- | cular olause may appear cumbrous, but it I was apparently passed to meet a case like | this, and to meet a caso like that of the I coal mining union, where porhaps in one I industrial district there are coal mines I widely apart whose affairs are attended to I by one union.” Ho regretted that the case | must fall to the ground on such a technical I objection, but he said if the parties were I differently advised it was open to them to | apply to the Supreme Court to issue a I mandamus to the Arbitration Court to I proceed with the case. 1