he Arbitration
Statute itself. Unions who want to make use of it, register under
it; and some eighty have already done so. Trade Unions who do not
specially register may nevertheless be brought before the Arbitration
Court by the employers of their members. So far the Act has met with
a remarkable measure of success. The Trade Unions are enthusiastic
believers in it,--rather too enthusiastic, indeed, for they have shown
a tendency to make too frequent a use of it. Some of their officials,
too, would do well to be more brief and businesslike in the conduct
of cases. On the other hand, employers in most of the localities have
made a serious mistake in refusing to elect representatives for the
local Conciliation Boards, and thus forcing the Government to nominate
members. This has weakened the Boards, has hindered them from having
the conciliatory character they ought to have, and has led in part
to the frequent appeals to the Central Court of which the employers
themselves complain. The lawyers claim to have discovered that the
penalty clauses of the Act are badly drafted, and some of them assert
that unless these are amended, they will be able to drive a coach
and six through the statute. No doubt technical amendments will
be required from time to time. What is still more requisite is an
understanding between the more reasonable leaders on both sides of
industry, by which arrangements may be made for the more effectual and
informal use of the Conciliation Boards. Meanwhile it savours of the
absurd to talk and write--as certain fault-finders have done--as
though every arbitration under the Act were a disturbance of industry
as ruinous as a prolonged strike. Other critics have not stickled to
assert that it has mischievously affected the volume of the Colony's
industries, a statement which is simply untrue. It is the reviving
prosperity of the Colony during the last three years which has led the
Trade Unions to make so much use of the Act. In place of striking on
a rising market, as they do in other countries, they have gone to
arbitration. Public opinion in New Zealand has never been one-sided on
the question. It has all along been prepared to give this important
experiment a fair trial, and is quite ready to have incidental
difficulties cured by reasonable amendment.

The Shipping and Seamen's Act, 1894, and the amending Acts of the two
following years, mitigate the old-fashioned severity of punishments
for refusal of d