a.—ii

XIV

The case Purvis v. Timaru Wharf Labourers' Union : A claim for 16s. 9d., a day's work lost through the union representing him as being unfinancial. Mr. V. G. Day dismissed this case on the ground that the union was not responsible for the 16s. 9d. claimed, as there was no contract between the plaintiff and the Union Steamship Company. The following table shows details of expenditure of (a) Conciliation Boards (under the old Act) for the years 1908-9 and 1909-10; (b) Councils of Conciliation (under the present Act) from 1909-10, 1910-11, and 1911-12; (c) the Court of Arbitration for the four vears 1908-9 to 1911-12, inclusive:— 1908-9. 1909-10. 1910-11. 1911-12. „ £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d £ ° rl Boards 1,472 12 3 14 14 0 . ; Councils ... ... 294 7 0 2,562 1 10 2,897 6 2 3,612 6 6 Arbitration Court ... 5,336 16 7 4,325 13 3 3,897 13 5 7 \\ Totals ....£7,103 15 10 £6,902 9 1 .£6,794 19 7 £6,924 14 5 This table includes the annual salaries of the members of the Court (£2,800), and of the Conciliation Commissioners (£1,500). It. will be noted that the expenditure for' Conciliation Councils shows an increase of £715 0s. 4d. compared witli last year's figures, whilst the expenses of the Arbitration Court show a decrease of £585 5s. 6d. The increased expenditure upon the Councils is entirely due to the larger number of cases taken this year as compared with last. As will be seen from a table following, no less than 21 more cases were heard than during the previous year. The expenses of assessors of the Councils during 1911-12 for fees and travelling-expenses are as follows :—

Comparing the totals with last year's expenditure (£1,117 lis. lid.) there has been an increase this year of £812 14s. lid. Registration of Industrial Unions and Associations. The usual annual return (to 31st December, 1911) is published separately in parliamentary paper H.-11a. The following table shows the number of unions and member's in both employers' and workers' unions from 31st December, 1904, to 31st December, 1911, inclusive:—

It will be noticed that, although the number of employers' unions has not decreased, there is a slight falling-off of eleven in the membership. There is one workers' union less than for

Industrial District. ! Fees. Travellingexpenses. i Total. Northern and Taranaki Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, and Westland Janterbury and Otago and Southland £ s. d. .. 441 0 0 .. 680 8 0 .. 430 4 0 £ s. d. 63 12 7 205 15 5 136 6 10 £ s. d. 504 12 7 886 3 5 539 10 10 Totals .. .. 1,524 12 0 405 14 10 405 14 10 1,930 6 10 1,930 6 10

Unions of Employers. Unions of Workers. Number of Unions. Number of Members. Number of Number of Unions. Members. lecember, 1903 .. 1904 .. 1905 .. 1906 .. 1907 .. 1908 .. 1909 .. 1910 .. 1911 .. 103 109 113 109 121 122 120 118 118 3,080 3,292 3,276 3,337 3,630 3,918 3,702 4,262 4,251 258 273 261 274 310 325 308 308 307 27,640 30,271 29,869 34,978 45,614 49,347 54,519 57,091 55,629