arm hands and
gardeners are engaged through Servants' Registry Offices. A law,
passed in 1895, provides for the inspection of these, and regulates
the fees charged therein. Office-keepers have to be of good character;
have to register and take out a license; have to keep books and
records which are officially inspected. They are not allowed to keep
lodging-houses or to have any interest in such houses.

To certain students the most interesting and novel of the New Zealand
labour laws is that which endeavours to settle labour disputes between
employers and Trade Unions by means of public arbitration instead
of the old-world methods of the strike and the lock-out. Under this
statute, which was passed in 1894, the Trade Unions of the Colony have
been given the right to become corporate bodies able to sue and be
sued. In each industrial locality a Board of Conciliation is set up,
composed equally of representatives of employers and workmen, with an
impartial chairman. Disputes between Trade Unions and employers--the
Act deals with no others--are referred first of all to these Boards.
The exclusion of disputes between individuals, or between unorganized
workmen and their masters, is grounded on the belief that such
disputes are apt to be neither stubborn nor mischievous enough to
call for State interference; moreover, how could an award be enforced
against a handful of roving workmen, a mere nebulous cluster of units?
At the request of any party to an industrial dispute the District
Board can call all other parties before it, and can hear, examine, and
recommend. It is armed with complete powers for taking evidence and
compelling attendance. Its award, however, is not enforceable at law,
but is merely in the nature of friendly advice. Should all or any of
the parties refuse to accept it, an appeal lies to the Central Court
of Arbitration, composed of a judge of the Supreme Court sitting with
two assessors representing capital and labour respectively. The trio
are appointed for three years, and in default of crime or insanity can
only be removed by statute. Their court may not be appealed from, and
their procedure is not fettered by precedent. No disputant may employ
counsel unless all agree to do so. The decisions of this Court are
binding in law, and may be enforced by pains and penalties. The
arbitration law has been in active operation for about three years,
during which time some thirty-five Labour disputes have been
su