132 THE RURAL PROBLEM 



anxiety to get their industry brought within the operation of the 

 Act. To-day more than nine-tenths of all the factory workers in 

 Victoria (and a large proportion of the other workers) are em- 

 ployed under conditions as to hours and wages which have been 

 legally determined by a Trade Board. 



Any industry may be brought under the Act by application of 

 the employers or workpeople to the Minister of Labour, who, if 

 he approves, thereupon moves a resolution which must be passed 

 by both Houses of the Legislature. The Minister then consti- 

 tutes a Board with an equal number of representatives of em- 

 ployers and workpeople. 



The Board has power not only to fix a minimum wage, but to 

 deal with all the conditions of the contract between the employer 

 and workpeople, wages, hours, overtime, holidays, proportion of 

 apprentices or improvers, definition of different classes of em- 

 ployers within the same trade, etc., etc. 



In every instance Trade Boards have brought about increase 

 of wages, generally very substantial increases, and at the same 

 time they have secured an almost universal eight-hours day for 

 factory workers, besides preventing the exploitation of boy and 

 girl labour. Yet there is not the least evidence that they have 

 increased prices. 



Trade Boards in England. 



The British Trade Boards Act of 1909 is based on the Victorian 

 model. It applies, at present, only to four trades — slop tailoring, 

 paper-box making, chain-making, and lace finishing. 



All the four Trade Boards appointed have now issued determi- 

 nations which, however, are not all yet in full force. They all, 

 however, raise the average wages, the increase in the chain-making 

 trade amounting to from 50 per cent, to 100 per cent. A still more 

 important result in the chain-making trade is that the women 

 engaged in it have, as a result of their increased wages, become 

 completely organised in a Trade Union, whereas before it was found 

 impossible to organise them. 



The main weaknesses of the British Trade Boards are as 

 follows : 



1 . The Boards so far have not yet as much courage as might 

 have been hoped, and have been too ready to listen to the plea 

 that large increases in wages would ruin the trades concerned. 

 Consequently, the increases, although valuable, are not altogether 

 satisfactory. 



2. The application of the Act is too restricted. The Board of 

 Trade has power to extend it to other trades, but only to those in 

 which wages are " exceptionally low " compared to other trades ; 

 thus, many trades that ought to be brought in are excluded 

 merely because others are in a worse plight. 



3. The Boards have insufficient power under the Act. They 

 ought to be empowered to deal not only with wages, but, as in 



