have been calculated by the Tribunals Division of the Department of
Justice at $275,000. A substantial liability for the burden of such
costs must lie upon the State but in my opinion the State ought to
be in part reimbursed in respect of the cost to the public of the
Inquiry, and I accordingly direct that Air New Zealand Limited pay
to the Department of Justice the sum of $150,000 by way of
contribution to the public cost of the Inquiry.

The order is in any event invalid because the amount is far greater than
the maximum allowed by the long out-of-date but apparently still extant
scale prescribed in 1903 (1904 Gazette 491). It is only fair to the
Commissioner to say that the scale seems never to have been drawn to his
attention by any counsel, although he gave an opportunity to make
submissions on costs. But there is a deeper objection to the validity of
the order, to which we will come shortly.


Conclusions

Having set out the various complaints we now state our conclusions more
specifically than in the earlier part of this judgment.

As to the jurisdiction of the Court in the present proceedings, the
application is made solely under the Judicature Amendment Act 1972.
Under that Act a decision cannot be set aside unless it was made in
exercise of a statutory power and _either_ it could have been quashed in
certiorari proceedings at common law--that is the effect of s. 4
(1)--_or_ the applicant is entitled to a declaration that it was
unauthorised or invalid, in which case s. 4 (2) empowers the Court to
set aside the decision instead.