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PAET lI.—TRADE-UNIONS. Fifteen new trade-unions were registered during the year, viz. : The Wellington General Merchants' Employees' Trade Union ; The Wellington Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Employees' Trade Union ; The Auckland Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Workers' Guild ; The Canterbury Stock and Station Agents' Grain and Seed Merchants' Clerical and Allied Employees' Union ; The New Zealand Clerical Workers' (in Employers' Organizations) Trade Union ; The Taranaki Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Employees' Trade Union; The Canterbury Associated Retailers' Union of Office Employees ; The Marlborough Stock and Station Agents' Grain and Seed Merchants' Clerical and Allied Employees' Union ; The Westland Stock and Station Agents' Grain and Seed Merchants' Clerical and Allied Employees' Union ; The Hawke's Bay Clerical Workers' (Employed by Retail Traders) Trade Union of Workers ; Hawke's Bay Accountants' and Sharebrokers' Employees' Guild ; The New Zealand Municipal and General Workers' Union ; The Otago and Southland Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Employees' Trade Union; The Nelson Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Employees' Trade Union ; The Auckland Sugar Manufacturing Industry Technical and Engineering Staff and Office Employees' Trade Union. One partial amendment was registered : New Zealand Locomotive Engineers, Firemen, and Cleaners' Association. There were forty unions on the register at the end of the year. Legislation. Sections 77 and 78 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1936, amended the Trade-unions Act, 1908, as follows : — " 77. (1) Section six of the Trade-unions Act, 1908, is hereby amended by inserting, after the words ' shall not apply to any trade-union', the words ' registered under this Act'; and by inserting, after the words ' the registration of any', the word ' such '. " (2) The validity of the registration before the passing of this Act of any company or society under any of the Acts specified in the said section six shall not hereafter be questioned on the ground that such company or society is or was a trade-union unless on the date of its registration under any of the said Acts it was a registered trade-union. "78. Section twenty of the Trade-unions Act,, 1908, is hereby amended by inserting, after subsection one, the following subsection: — " ' (Iα) If a trade-union makes default in forwarding to the Registrar the annual returns required by section twenty-eight hereof, the Registrar may send by post to the last known officers of the union a letter inquiring whether the union is in existence, and, if within two months of sending the letter the Registrar does not receive any answer thereto, or receives an answer to the effect that the union is defunct, the union shall for the purposes of the last preceding subsection be deemed to have ceased to exist, and the Registrar may, subject to the provisions of the next succeeding subsection, cancel the certificate of registration thereof.' "

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