employers and twenty-four workers. Each party to a dispute would appoint one of these experts to watch its interests. The members of the Board, meeting together, would elect two more of their number, and these four experts, with a Stipendiary Magistrate as chairman, would be the body to deal with the disputes.
Another suggestion came from Mr. Justice Cooper, one of the Presidents of the Court, who considers that the Boards, as originally constituted in regard to representatives of the two parties, could be retained if there were chairmen with legal knowledge.
But the workers oppose these suggestions, and several others, which have been put forth by the employers. As to an Expert Board, it is urged that experts are almost sure to be partisans. The Court already has power to call in expert advice to help it out of a difficulty, and the Boards may take the same action. But even in that limited sphere, experts have not been a success. There was a dispute a few years ago in connection with the Christchurch tailoring trade. The Court, finding that a mass of technicalities was involved, called in the assistance of two experts. The Act provides that one of them must be nominated by each party. The experts in this instance were given full and explicit instructions by the Court to take the proposed log, deal with each item, and report to the Court what, in their opinion, was a fair allowance. The experts studied the items, which numbered about one thousand, for more than a month. When the report was presented to the Court, the employers promptly declined to agree to it and asked that it should be set aside. The plea they made was that their own expert was incompetent. The Court refused to set aside the report and accepted the experts’ advice.
When a case affecting the bookbinders of Wellington was considered, the Court again sought guidance from experts. “I had to call in the help of experts,” the President said later on, “but, unfortunately, they disagreed upon every item.” The proposal to establish Boards of Experts, therefore, had to be thrown overboard.
