H.—llb

Clarification of Powers of Court of Arbitration. —We recommend that the words " in an Apprenticeship Order or otherwise " be adderl after the word " power " in section 5 (4) of the Apprentices Act, 1923. The Master and Apprentice Act, 1908. With the exception of one suggestion, that the whole Act should lie repealed, no submission or evidence whatsoever was tendered to the Commission concerning the Master and Apprentice Act, 1908, or its amendments of 1920 and 1924. We have neither encountered any apprentice coming within the scope of Part I of the original Act nor learned of the existence of any such apprentice. Several of the sections of Part 1 are clearly obsolete and Unacceptable according to present-day standards. With regard to Part TT of the original Act and to the Master and Apprentice Amendment Act, 1920, we have no comments or recommendations to make. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS The following is a summary of our principal recommendations : — (1) Apprenticeship as the main method of educating and training recruits in the skilled trades should continue. (2) There should be appointed for the Dominion a Commissioner of Apprenticeship, attached to the Labour Department, and devoting his whole, time to apprenticeship matters. He, should be Chairman and executive officer of the Dominion Apprenticeship Committees recommended below. (3) in at least the four main cities there should be full-time Deputy Commissioners of Apprenticeship, who should be Chairmen and executive officers of local Apprenticeship Committees. (4) The Apprentices Act, 1923, should be amended to provide for Dominion apprenticeship orders, and such orders only. (5) Dominion Apprenticeship Committees for each industry or group of allied trades should be set up. (6) The system of local Apprenticeship Committees should be retained, (7) The membership of both Dominion and local Apprenticeship Committees should include representatives of technical education. (8) It should be made a breach of the Act to employ any person as an apprentice without the prior consent in writing of the appropriate local Committee. (9) The powers of transfer of apprentices and the provision for joint contracts in the present Act should be fully used where there is evidence of limited or inadequate training. The power of transfer in the Act should be extended for this purpose. (10) When it is impossible to find a " willing " employer lor such transfer, then the apprentice should be transferred on the recommendation of the Apprenticeship Committee, but only with the approval of the Court of Arbitration and on the application of the Commissioner of Apprenticeship, to one or other of the Government Departments which train apprentices or have the power to take apprentices under the Master and Apprentice Act, 1908. (11) Provision should be made in the estimates of the Labour Department each year to meet any additional costs that the transfers may cause to the other Departments concerned. (12) In trades in which theoretical knowledge is important, Apprenticeship Committees should see to it that only boys known to have the capacity to acquire that knowledge be admitted to apprenticeship. (13) The Dominion Apprenticeship Committees should co-operate with the Education Department to provide or extend educational activities that will widen the experience of boys in crafts. (14) In the programme of work for " social studies " in schools there should be incorporated reference to possible careers, including a broad general knowledge of the conditions of apprenticeship. (15) A. system of bursaries should be inaugurated to help pupils who live in country districts not served by a technical school and who are desirous of further study in technical subjects above the level of the School Certificate. (16) Boards of managers of technical schools should publicize the work of their schools. (17) In technical schools the development and full use of Advisory Committees from industry should be encouraged. (18) When salary scales affecting technical teachers are being drawn up, due regard should lie paid to the remuneration of similarly qualified persons in industry. (19) The State should help able and ambitious young men by giving them bursaries for further specialized training beyond the journeyman stage. (20) Each Dominion Apprenticeship Committee should consider as soon as possible (a) whether or not daylight training is necessary in its trade ; (6) the method of introducing it; and (c) what time must elapse before the necessary arrangements can be made with the education authorities. (21) The signing of indentures should be made the occasion of a meeting of all parties. (22) In every contract of apprenticeship the title of the person who will undertake or supervise the actual training of the apprentice should be given, together with a definition of the scope of his responsibility. (23) The contract of apprenticeship should contain a brief schedule of the operations and skills to be taught to the apprentice. (24) Dominion Apprenticeship Committees should consider the institution of a trade test for all apprentices during the final six months of their term. (25) The Apprentices Act should be amended to provide for the compulsory issue by Apprentices! Ip Committees of a certificate to each apprentice on the completion of his apprenticeship indicating that he has served his time in his trade. (26) The Education Department's Technological Examinations should be revised and more extensively used. (27) Any future changes in minimum wages and conditions of employment of apprentices should be made applicable to existing contracts. (28) In future, scales of wages in apprenticeship orders should be laid down as percentages of the ruling minimum rates for journeymen applying for the time being in the industry concerned. (29) The State should, inaugurate a system of boarding-allowances to cover special cases of hardship where it is necessary for apprentices to live away from home to learn their trades,

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