VEXATIOUS PROSECUTIONS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9136, 4 May 1908, Page 2

VEXATIOUS PROSECUTIONS.

AN ARBITRATION COURT MATTER. Per Press Association, Auckland, May I.” 1 Occasion was taken by Mr O. Grosvenor, secretary of the Auckland Employers’ Association, at the Arbitration Court to-day, to draw attention to the necessity for making provision whereby employers, when cited before the Court without adequate reason, may obtain costs against the inspector. “Here,” said Mr Grosvenor, “we have a case in which the Union makes a statement to the Inspectors of Awards alleging that two men have slaughtered cattle on a certain date, when it has been proved that they were not slaughtering at all, and also that they were not in the slaughteringhouse that day. In this case, the respondent, together with his principal employees, has been waiting for three days for the proceedings to come on, and has no means of recovering any expenses at all. In oases where employers are charged with committing offences, and these are proved against them, they are usually mulcted in a fine and compelled to pay witnesses’ expenses. Some alteration should be made in the Act whereby in cases that are absolutely frivolous the employers should be allowed expenses, I do not mean to reflect on the inspector, as he acts on information given him by the Union, and this is very often Inaccurate. ”

Mr S. Brown: You will have to get the Act altered. Mr Grosvenor: We used to allow costs until the Act w r as altered. His Honour: The provision was slipped into the Consolidation Act. The Legislature really did not know what it was doing.

Mr Grosvenor: The Employers’ Federation during the conference in Wellington submitted the matter to tire Cabinet, but up to the present no heed has been taken of it.