The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, SEPTEMBER 29, 1899.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3103, 29 September 1899, Page 4

The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, SEPTEMBER 29, 1899.

A return has been laid on the table of the House on the motion of Mr George Hutchison, showing the various amounts paid for services under the Industrial and Conciliation Act. The return is for the year ending 31st March, 1899. The total expenditure for services rendered by the Arbitration Court was £656 12s 2d. The disputes submitted for Arbitration were as follows : — Dunedin mouldera. Dunedin pastrycooks, Dunedin bootmakers, Allandale coalminers, Rangiora carpenters, Christchurch engineers, Christchurch carpenters, Christchurrh painters, Christchurch furniture trades, Christchurch bakers, Christchurch tinsmiths, Wellington bakers, Wellington tailoresses, Wellington carpenters. The tot.il cost of the Conciliation Boards for the year was £734 10s, and nearly half o£ this amount was incurred by the Auckland Board where only five disputes were submitted. In Wellington the Board considered eight disputes at a cost of £169 Us 6d, and in Canterbury eight disputes were heard at a cost of £100 3s 2d, In Qtago the Board sat

on the following cases : — Allandale coalminers, Kaitangata coalminers, Dunedin bootmakers, engineers, furniture trades, tailoresses, linotypists. And the payments made to the members of the Board were : Messrs 6. P Farquhar, £15 Is ; W. A. Sim, £29 5s ; G. R. Sise, £28 4s; J. A. Millar, £21 17s; R. H. Ferguson, £25 10s; railway fares of £2 15s to Kaitangata making up £132 3s Bd, the total cos* of the proceedings. The only other district mentioned in the return is Westland, but nothing was done there by the Board, except spending £8 10s notifying the public of its election in the Coast newspapers. The total expenditure for holding Arbitration Courts and meetings of Conciliation Boards was £1391 2s 2d. Anyone who remembers the state of affairs existing prior to the passing of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act by the Government, will be struck by the smallness of this amount compared with what used to be wasted yearly in New Zealand in trade disputes. The weakness of the present system — and perfection is not arrived at in a day — lies in the want of power given to Conciliation Boards to settle disputes, but that is a matter which ere long will be done away with by the passing of an amending measure through Parliament.

It will be remembered that the employees of flour mills all over the colony, recently petitioned Parliament regarding the hours of labor customary in such mills. The matter has now been taken in hand by the Hon. Lee Smith, who is introducing a Bill in the Upper House dealing with the question. The Bill is entitled " The xMillers' Hours of Labor Act, 1899." and section 2 provides that "No person shall be employed in or about a mill ia which flour or oatmeal is made, for more than nine hours in any one day, nor for more than fifty-one hours in any one week, nor for more tYv&nfour and a-half consecutive hours without an interval of at least one hour for a meal, except on Saturday, when the consecutive houi'S may be six." Section 3 in effect provides that the occupiers of such mills shall keep registers showing persons employed therein, and the number of hours worked daily. Section 3 provides that inspectors under " The Factories Act, 1894," shall enforce all the provisions of the Act, and also sections 13 to 17 inclusive of the above statute. It is also further provided that occupiers of mills for contravention of any provision of the Bill shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5- second or subsequent convictions within two years shall render mill occupiers liable to a penalty of not less than £1 for each offence. All offences under this measure are to be prosecuted and recovered in the same manner as provided in sections 64, 67, and 71 to 76 (inclusive) of " The Factories Act, 1894." ____„_