144 



Agricultural Arbitration. 



[JUNE, 



1. Give both parties equal opportunities on every point and 

 at every stage of the arbitration. 



2. Hear both parties and accept evidence from both or from 

 neither. If the question be a purely expert one on which the 

 arbiter is competent to decide without evidence, he is not bound 

 to hear evidence ; he is generally the judge as to whether evidence 

 is necessary, but he must act reasonably and fairly to both 

 parties. 



3. He must act in accordance with the Statutes and particu- 

 larly with the Second Schedule to the Act of 1900. He has no 

 right to waive any legal conditions or requirements, whether 

 as regards the time for lodging claims, the condition for requiring 

 " further " claims to be brought within the arbitration, or the 

 time for issuing award, &c. 



Objections are frequently taken to the manner in which 

 arbiters deal with the question of expenses. They too often 

 act as if no part of the expenses of the parties is part of the 

 expenses in the arbitration. Accordingly it is usual to find 

 the fees and expenses of the arbiter and his clerk allocated in a 

 particular way, while each party is left to pay his own expenses. 

 This is often unfair. The expense to which a party is put by 

 having to establish his claim in the arbitration may frequently 

 be quite as much a debt properly due to him by the other party 

 as the claim itself. 



Take a simple case. A tenant claims £100. The landlord 

 makes no tender and contests the claim. The tenant is success- 

 ful in getting an award for either the whole or a large proportion 

 of the amount. Is it not plain that the expense which the 

 tenant incurred is due to the unreasonable attitude of the 

 proprietor ? Why then should the proprietor not pay that 

 expense as well as the fees of the clerk and arbiter ? 



It is not possible to lay down rules which shall apply to all 

 circumstances, but the following may be of some assistance : — 



1. The successful party should generally get his expenses. 



2. The party who is awarded a substantial sum is successful, 

 even though he has not got all he claimed. 



3. If a party claims under different heads and fails entirely 

 under any head, he ought to bear such expense as was incurred 

 through claiming under that head. 



4. Although the Act of 1900 (Second Schedule) provides that 



