48 



AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH OF. 



tions exceeding the Government estimates, 

 though some of the state premiers considered it 

 the duty of the Government to provide employ- 

 ment in" unfavorable times. A conference of state 

 Premiers was held at Sydney in the middle of 

 May. Mr. Barton went to England to take part 

 in the conference of colonial ministers that was 

 to be held in connection with the coronation. 

 During his absence the Attorney-General acted 

 as Premier of the Commonwealth. The Common- 

 wealth Government prepared to take over the ad- 

 ministration of British New Guinea. It is pro- 

 posed that the northern territory of South Aus- 

 tralia be transferred to the Federal Government, 

 which shall complete the railroad from Adelaide 

 to Port Darwin, selling land to pay the cost. 



New South Wales. The Legislative Council 

 had 69 members in 1901, who are appointed for 

 life. There are 125 members in the Legislative 

 A-M'inl>lv, who are elected in as many districts 

 l>y the votes of all male British subjects of full 

 age who have resided one year in the state and 

 three months in the district. The Governor at 

 the beginning of 1902 was Vice-Admiral Sir 

 Harry Holdsworth Rawson, appointed Jan. 29, 

 1901. The Cabinet of Ministers at the begin- 

 ning of 1902 was composed as follows: Pre- 

 mier, Colonial Secretary, and Minister of Rail- 

 ways, John See; Colonial Treasurer, Thomas 

 Waddell; Attorney-General and Minister of Jus- 

 tice, Bernhard Ringrose Wise; Secretary for 

 Lands, William Patrick Crick; Secretary for 

 Public Works, Edward William Sullivan; Minis- 

 ter of Public Instruction and of Industry and 

 Labor, John Perry; Secretary for Mines and 

 Agriculture, John Kidd; Vice-President of the 

 Executive Council, Francis Bathurst Sutton; 

 without portfolios, James Hayes and Walter 

 Bennett. 



The net revenue of the Government for the 

 year ending June 30, 1900, was 9,970,677, of 

 which taxation produced 2,618,066, land reve- 

 nue 2,116,076, Government services 4,992,521, 

 and miscellaneous sources 244,014. Of the 

 revenue from taxation the import and excise du- 

 ties made 1,736,374, and the stamp-duties, land 

 and income taxes, and licenses, 881,692. The 

 net expenditures were 9,888,977, of which 

 2,102,794 were for railways and tramways, 

 722,110 for posts and telegraphs, 2,310.271 for 

 interest on the public debt, 27 for immigration, 

 769,576 for instruction, and 3,984,199 for 

 other public works and services. The public 

 debt, four-fifths of which was incurred to build 

 railroads, tramways, telegraphs, sewerage, water- 

 works, and irrigation works, amounted on June 

 30, 1900, to 65,332,993, paying the average in- 

 terest of 3.63 per cent., 2.93 per cent, being re- 

 turned in the profits of the public works, which 

 yielded 3.45 per cent, of their capital cost. Fur- 

 ther loans amounting to 19,630,135 were au- 

 thorized. 



The State Assembly met on May 28. Social 

 legislation had the first place in the ministerial 

 piogram. A women's franchise bill was passed, 

 and a bill for municipal reform. The question 

 of reducing the Assembly to 94 members is to be 

 submitted to a referendum. Parliament has in- 

 stituted a compulsory arbitration court. The 

 first sittings of the court were to be devoted to 

 the establishment of a minimum rate of wages, 

 the limitation of the hours of labor, and the 

 regulation of child labor. The whole industrial 

 ystem of the state has been brought under the 

 act. Trade-unions, originally unlawful associa- 

 tions, inasmuch as they acted in restraint of 

 trade, were legalized in New South Wales by the 



act of 1881, which enables any 7 persons or more 

 to form a trade-union and be registered as such, 

 and confers on trade-unions the right to hold 

 property and to sue, with liability to be sued. 

 The industrial arbitration act of 1901 provides 

 that any trade-union or association of trade- 

 unions or any branch of a union shall be entitled 

 to register as an industrial union of employees; 

 and conversely that any person, association, or 

 company employing on an average 50 employees 

 per month is entitled to register as an industrial 

 union of employers. Each industrial union on 

 registration becomes a body corporate and has 

 a common seal and perpetual succession. As 

 soon as the act went into effect the trade-unions 

 already in existence applied for registration with 

 enthusiasm. The employers reluctantly and with 

 hesitation also formed industrial unions the 

 pastoralists, the mine owners, merchants, manu- 

 facturers, and masters of the various trades. 

 The provisions of the act placing the control of 

 every business in the hands of a court made it a 

 matter of necessity for employers to take steps 

 to be represented in the court, which consists of 

 a judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the 

 Governor as president and 2 members appointed 

 by the Governor from lists submitted respectively 

 by a body of delegates from the trade-unions and 

 a body of delegates from the industrial unions of 

 employers. Organizing into unions is a volun- 

 tary act, yet if either employers or employed fail 

 to nominate delegates the Governor may appoint 

 on the tribunal such persons as he may see fit. 

 When technical questions come before the court, 

 the court may appoint 2 assessors represent- 

 ing employers and employed respectively. The 

 court has power to hear and determine any in- 

 dustrial dispute or industrial matter or any 

 application under the act brought before it by an 

 industrial union. A person not a member of a 

 union can come into court for the remedy of a 

 grievance sustained through a decision of the 

 tribunal, but an industrial dispute where one of 

 the parties is not a member of an industrial 

 union can only be referred to the court in the 

 discretion of the registrar. Any person entitled 

 to refer a dispute or to apply for an order of the 

 court goes to the registrar, who summons all 

 parties to attend. The court has full power to 

 compel the attendance of witnesses, the produc- 

 tion of books and papers, etc. The suspension of 

 work by a strike or a lockout without reference 

 of the dispute to the court entails a fine of 

 1,000 or two months' imprisonment. The dis- 

 missal of an employee for belonging to a union 

 or because he is entitled to the benefit of an 

 award subjects an employer to a penalty of 20. 

 The court has power to ^prescribe a minimum 

 rate of wages in any particular trade; to direct 

 that unionists shall be employed in preference to 

 non-unionists; to appoint a tribunal to deter- 

 mine whether an employer may employ non- 

 unionists; to declare any regulation, custom, 

 term of agreement, condition of employment, or 

 dealing whatsoever in relation to an industrial 

 matter to be a common rule of the industry af- 

 fected and to direct in what way and to what 

 extent such common rule shall be binding upon 

 all persons engaged in that industry, whether 

 they are before the court or not. Any union 

 disobeying an order of the court is liable to a 

 penalty of 500 and any individual to one of 5, 

 and the court may specify the persons to whom 

 Midi penalty shall be paid, and if the property of 

 a union is insufficient to satisfy the award the 

 individual members are liable up to 10. The 

 power of the court includes all or any matters 



