ENGLISH AND SCOTCH SUGGESTIONS 229 



practical knowledge of the several features of the 

 agriculture of the district would seem an indispensable 

 qualification, and the Board of Agriculture ought to 

 obtain satisfactory evidence as to this qualification from 

 the county or counties concerned before making any 

 appointment. 



There is the even more important difference of 

 opinion as to whether there should be a number of such 

 official arbitrators appointed for a county or counties 

 from which list umpires or single arbitrators are to be 

 selected by the parties or the county court, or by some 

 other authority, or a single official arbitrator appointed 

 with jurisdiction over a specified tract of country like a 

 county court judge. 



The opinion of practical men would seem to have 

 been steadily moving in the latter direction. The former 

 scheme would seem a halfway house between two antag- 

 onistic systems, and to retain some of the mischief 

 of the old system, without the full benefits reasonably 

 expected from the " single and authoritative arbitrator " 

 proposal. Much weight should attach to the con- 

 tention that an arbitrator of the type contemplated by 

 Mr Scott, and by most of the Scottish witnesses, would 

 give decisions on broader and at the same time more 

 consistent grounds, and would act as a better exponent 

 of the intention of Parliament, and that procedure of 

 this kind raised above the mere partisan efforts of 

 competing referees would greatly lessen litigation, and 

 settle disputed points on simple and definitely ascer- 

 tained principles, with the minimum of friction, of out- 

 lay, and of cost. So long as the door remains open for 

 either party to try, in selecting from a list, whether 

 officially sanctioned or not, to get the man with a bias 

 towards the interests of his side, the obvious evils of the 

 present system cannot be quite eliminated. 



There is no reason why, if sufficient care is taken in the 

 appointment of such arbitrators for definite districts, men 

 of high character and absolute impartiality, as well as of 

 practical agricultural experience, should not be secured 



