H.—ll.

The following tables will show.the nature of the work done: No. 1 and No. 2. It is worthy of note that in the Arbitration Court■ (> I convictions resulted in fines amounting to £66 10s., while in the Magistrate's Conn 18 convictions resulted in fines amounting to £116. In addition to the above, there were 35 members of the Bakers' Union convicted of taking part in a strike and the Bakers' Union was convicted and fined £100 for the same offence. The circumstances of this case are of some interest. The union applied for and obtained an award. The award when made did not sat isfv the union, and the employers were approached with the object of getting improved conditions mutually agreed to. This move was not successful, and in order to force their demands upon the employers the union organized and declared a strike, with the result as mentioned above. There were also several prosecutions against persons for aiding and abetting the strike who were not employers or workers ; but the Court held that the Act did not apply to them, but only to " employers " and "workers," and the cases were dismissed. The recent amendments of the Act have fully remedied this defect. It will be seen that the largest number of enforcements under any one award was in respect to the Cooks and Waiters, there being 31 enforcements, and a total of 185 breaches and alleged breaches dealt with. There was also a sum of £101 6s. 9d. back wages collected under this award.. The next in order is Ihe Butchers, with 17 enforcements; followed by the Builders' Labourers, with 13 enforcements. _ A total of £3Hi 15s. Id. back wages has been collected during the period ;in many instances this has been for overtime, the claim for which had not been made until after the worker had been dismissed, owing perhaps to a quarrel with his employer. In some instances employees have worked for month after month without claiming overtime, and" then, upon being dismissed, have at once preferred a claim for it. The new Act has put a stop to this by debarring a worker from claiming more than three months' back wages. I may say that the summary of work here presented .does not include all the original investigations made. In connection with the work of an Inspector of Awards one comes into contact with all classes of people, most of whom are reasonable enough, but some are unreasonable. Leaving out the extremists on both sides, it may be said that the feeling pervading the industrial atmosphere is generally speaking improving in the direction of a mutual recognition of the other side, and consequently there is a fairly harmonious state of affairs existing at present. I have, &c, W. Newton, The Chief Inspector of Factories, Wellington. Inspector of Awards.

Table 1.—Analysis of Investigations made in Wellington during the Year ending 31st March, 1909.

xxxi

Trade. Complaints Enforce- j Interpre- ; Cases settled made in Total merits. tations. j out of Court. which no Breach found. Wages recovered. < £ 8. (1. A.erated-water workers .. .. 1 Bakers .. .. . . I Bootmakers Brick and tile workers Bricklayers Builders' labourers . . . . 13 Butchers .. .. .. 17 Cooks and waiters .. . . 31 Carpenters .. • • • • '•' Coachworkers . . .. Drivers Electrical workers Engineers Furniture trades .. .. 1 Farriers General labourers Grocers .. .. ■ • 1 Letterpress-printers' machinists .. 2 Moulders Painters and decorators .. . . 5 Plasterers .. .. . • ■ 1 Plumbers .. .. . ■ 1 Saddlers .. .. .. 1 Tailoresses .. .. .. 1 Tailors Timber-yards and sawmills Tinsmiths and sheet-metal workers Typographers .. .. .. 6 Wharf labourers .. .. 1 { I "i i i •■ i 1 ! i 2 3 1 1 1 17 3 70 12 25 1 3 13 13 1 8 4 2 2 4 6 7 12 1 10 25 16 79 2; i 5 37 9 25 •) 8 18 3 24 l() II 4 5. 10 1 2 8 7 1 16 2 1 11 55 37 185 51 5 63 9 1 28 6 21 32 5 I 38 15 13 5 8 12 5 2 22 15 0 12 10 2 0 0 25 9 9 1 0 0 101 6 9 53 4 0 14 5 3 18 10 0 4 13 0 0 9 6 23 13 9 0 16 5 0 '.i 0 3 2 3 0 3 6 4 4 10 0 10 8 12 18 0 46 7 9 2 17 10 I Totals .. .. 92 13 199 361 065 316 15 1