The Court has been asked to exclude an undue number of youths, and to limit their number in proportion to the number of adults in almost every occupation that has come under the Act. The proportion is generally stated at either one youth to three adults employed, or one to four. In delivering an award in the grocers’ dispute in Wellington in 1902 the President said: “We know of no sufficient reason that can justify us in limiting the number of youths to be employed in a grocer’s shop. There are some occupations where it is advisable to limit the youths in number. But there are other occupations where no such limit is either reasonable or necessary, and it is our duty to see that the avenues for suitable work are not closed to the youth of the colony. We owe a duty to the boys of the community, as well as to the adult workers of the colony, and that duty we must perform to the best of our ability.”
The Court further holds that if boys are debarred from obtaining suitable employment in trades from which they should not be excluded, a wrong is done to them, and the difficulties surrounding the bringing-up of a family are greatly increased. The interests of the colony, in its opinion, demand that the youths of the colony must not be shut out from legitimate means of earning a livelihood.
It is not necessary to continue quoting cases here to show the vast range of the Court’s work, and the problems it is called upon to solve.
One feature that stands out very prominently is Mr. Reeves’s wisdom in providing that the President shall be a Judge of the Supreme Court. This is another of the original proposals which met with great disfavour, but which, in practice, has been proved to be successful. The Judges of the Supreme Court themselves were strongly opposed to the idea. When the Bill was going through its first parliamentary stages, Sir James Prendergast, Chief Justice, on behalf of all the Judges, wrote to Mr. Reeves, as Minister for Justice, begging that the proposal to appoint one of their number President should not be carried out. His Honour said that their time was fully occupied, and that they specially objected to the imposition upon them of duties that were not judicial.
