What was in dispute in the argument in this connection was principally
whether the order is so linked with the challenged findings in the
Report that if those findings are invalid for excess of jurisdiction or
breach of natural justice the order will fall with them. There was a
subsidiary argument about whether the order was in any event invalid
because the amount may greatly exceed the maximum allowed by the long
out-of-date but still apparently extant scale prescribed in 1903 (1904
Gazette 491). We propose to consider the main argument, however, and in
doing so to confine attention to whether there is a sufficient link
between the order and the main findings complained of in the Report,
those in paragraph 377.

At the beginning of his reasons for ordering costs the Commissioner
expressed the opinion that the power should be exercised whenever the
conduct of a party at the hearing has materially and unnecessarily
extended the duration of the hearing. His following reasons include
criticisms of the management of the airline for prolonging the hearing,
and it was contended before us by Mr Baragwanath that they go no
further. We are unable to accept that contention. In reciting the
circumstances leading to the orders for costs the Commissioner expressly
includes the chief executive's order for documents to be destroyed and
says, "The cards were produced reluctantly, and at long intervals, and I
have little doubt that there are one or two which still lie hidden in
the pack". We think that such language would naturally be understood by
a reasonable reader to refer back to the matters more fully developed in
the section of the Report headed "The stance adopted by the airline
before the Commission of Inquiry", a section culminating in paragraph
377 with its references to "a pre-determined plan of deception ... an
attempt to conceal a series of disastrous administrative blunders ... an
orchestrated litany of lies". The impression almost inevitably created