THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 4, 15 December 1910, Page 4

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW.

We cannot help thinking that the Arbitration Court departed very widely from the spirit in which the Conciliation and Arbitration Act was conceived when it dismissed the application of the workers for an award in the dispute between the Shearers' Union and the Sheepowners' Union regarding the wages and conditions of shearing shed hands on the ground that when the application was filed the existence of the dispute had not been properly proved. The dispute was a matter of common knowledge, which had been discussed in the newspapers and on the platform again and again., and the Court allowed both parties to present their arguments and call their witnesses without even suggesting that the proceedings were irregular. Technical objections were raised by the employers' representative on other points, but this one was never mentioned until the Court came to give its decision. Then the president, with a knowledge of the letter of the law which no one will question, explained the position. "It is true/ he said, " that there is now an industrial dispute between the two unions, but that is not sufficient to give the Court jurisdiction. Before the Court can acquire jurisdiction to make an award it must be clear that there was an industrial dispute in existence between the two unions at the date when the application was filed. The Shearers' Union has failed to l>rove that there was any such dispute in existence, and the Court has no jurisdiction to make an award." We do not know what proof the Court would have required, and we need not inquire, but we are quite sure that the Legislature never intended that the operation of the Act should be delayed and defeated by mere legal quibbles. When moving the second reading of his first Conciliation and Arbitration Bill in the House of Represenxatives Mr W. P. Reeves emphasised the importance of simplifying the proceedings of the Arbitration Court. The members, he said, " will not be bound by legal rules, but will be able to decide on grounds of equity and good conscience in, the same way as magistrates may do." He spoke to the same effect when introducing his second Bill, and his view on this particular point was warmly endorsed, from both sides of the House. The Act as it stands on the Statute Book to<-day provides that " the Court may accept, admit and call fo:r such evidence as in equity and goo 1 conscience it thinks fit, whether strictly legal evidence or not," and if this is not sufficient to save the parties to a dispute from the president's devotion to forms and technicalities the Legislature must take more effective steps to ensure the spirit of the measure being observed. It would not need many decisions like the one delivered by Mr Justice Sim last week to bring the whole system of arbitration into disrepute. —" Lyttelton Times," 30/11/10.