the Perambulator and Invalid Carriage Board cancelled its apprenticeship scheme, which had been in operation since June, 1922.

Cost of Living Sliding Scales.

In addition to the changes mentioned above, changes in the current minimum rates made under the respective cost of living sliding scale schemes occurred in the case of seven Boards, as shown in Appendix XIV.

Drift Nets Mending Trade.

Reference is made above to minimum rates fixed for the first time by the Drift Nets Mending Trade Board. The application of these rates to workpeople employed by boat-owners is contested and it has been indicated to the Department that, pending legal decision, the rates will not be paid and are, in fact, not being paid. The matter will be brought before the Courts on a test case.

PROCEEDINGS OF TRADE BOARDS.

Meetings of Trade Boards and Committees.

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During the period there were held 61 meetings of full Trade Boards, 59 meetings of Administrative or Standing Committees, 33 meetings of District Trade Committees, 39 meetings of Permits Committees, and 38 meetings of other committees. The Retail Bespoke Tailoring Trade Board for England and Wales held six meetings and the Chain Trade Board five meetings during the period; other Boards held a smaller number of meetings, while 16 Boards did not meet at all.

The great majority of the meetings of the Boards were for the purpose principally of considering applications for variations in the minimum rates. In 14 cases motions for changes in the minimum rates were either rejected, postponed or withdrawn, and in 16 cases motions to propose to vary minimum rates were carried. Only three meetings of Trade Boards were held at which questions of minimum rates did not arise: two to deal solely or mainly with questions relating to the revision of the scope of the Boards and one to deal with general matters of administration.

Of the 33 meetings of District Trade Committees, eight were meetings of the Committees in the boot and shoe repairing trade for the purpose of considering a notice issued by the Trade Board towards the end of 1925 proposing to vary certain of the current minimum rates. The other 25 meetings were meetings of the Committees of the Retail Bespoke Tailoring Trade Board for England and Wales, which were engaged during the period in completing their recommendations to the Trade Board as to what should be the minimum rates of wages for the various parts of their areas, and in considering and reporting upon the formal notices of proposal issued by the Trade Board for the various District Trade Committee areas.

Applications for permits of exemption continued to be dealt with in a majority of cases by small" Permits" Committees. Where no" Permits" Committee has been appointed, applications for permits of exemption are dealt with by the Administrative or Standing Committee which has been appointed by each Trade Board (except the Chain Making and Lace Finishing Trade Boards) for the purpose of dealing, either in the first instance or with full powers, with the administrative and routine work of the Board, such as questions regarding learners, the registration of apprentices, the expression of opinions on scope and the revision of the scope of the Boards.

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A number of Boards appointed special committees to consider and report on special subjects, such as the Factories Bill, anomalies in piece rates, learnership" provisions, special rates for special classes of workers, special rates for homeworkers, and the question of making provision for one day's rest in seven for dairy workers.

Permits of Exemption.

The number of workers holding permits of exemption (enabling infirm workers to be employed at rates of wages below the minimum fixed by the Board for workers of the class concerned) was on 31st December, 1926, 2063, as compared with 2,320 on 31st December, 1925. A number of inoperative permits have been cleared during the year in the course of a systematic review of the outstanding permit cases, trade by trade, and this renders a strict comparison between the figures for the respective periods impracticable.

The largest numbers of permits current on 31st December, 1926, in the various trades were: 397 in the boot and shoe repairing trade, 260 in the laundry trade, and 204 in the retail bespoke tailoring trade. The smallest numbers of permits in any trade were one in the Scottish hat, cap and millinery trade, and three each in the Scottish milk distributive trade and the sack and bag trade. The trades subject to Trade Board regulation vary considerably in the degree to which permits of exemption are applicable. A number of them are almost wholly piece-work trades, in which (unless a guaranteed time rate is in operation) permits are not required and cannot be granted.

Registration of "Learners" and Indentured Apprentices.

30,177 learners, compared with 29.185 in the previous year, were registered in 1926 by the twenty Trade Boards which have laid down schemes of learnership requiring such registration as a condition of the application of the special lower minimum rates for "learners." In addition, 424 indentured apprentices, compared with 429 in the previous year, were registered in 1926 with the eight Trade Boards which provide special minimum rates of wages for this class of worker.

INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT: SPECIAL INQUIRIES.

Inspection and Enforcement.

The total number of officers engaged on inspection at the end of 1926 was 58 (including the Chief Inspector and Deputy Chief Inspector and an Officer in charge of Special Inquiries).

The method of inspection during the year followed the lines of that previously adopted, that is, to investigate complaints received which could not be settled by correspondence and to carry out such routine inspection as could be arranged.

The number of complaints received in 1926 was 2,922, as compared with 3,181 received during the previous year. Of these complaints 524 were found upon examination not to require the inspection of the establishment concerned.

The number of inspections made during the year is shown in Appendix XV. 10,874 wages inspections were made in 1926, as compared with 9,958 in 1925 (including a few cases where the same establishment was inspected twice). In addition, 11,465 visits were paid during the year to employers, workers, trade union officials, &c., for various purposes in connection with the enforcement of the Acts, as compared with 9,585 visits paid during 1925. The number of workers employed on work within the scope of the Trade Boards Acts in the establishments inspected in 1926 was 111,305 as compared with 111,366 in establishments inspected in 1925 (see Appendices XV and XVIA).

Arrears of wages claimed in 1926 amounted to £47,614 on behalf of 7,077 workpeople employed in 2,645 establishments, as compared with £48,507 claimed on behalf of 7,426 workers employed in 2,564 establishments during the previous year. In practically all these cases payment of the arrears was secured (see Appendices XVI and XVIA). The number of establishments in which breaches of the Acts (other than underpayment) were reported is shown in Appendix XVII.

It thus appears that during the year under review the wages paid to approximately 9 per cent. of the 11 million workpeople entitled to Trade Board minimum rates were investigated. The 7,077 workers on whose behalf arrears were claimed represent roughly 6 per cent. of the 111,305 workpeople whose wages were brought under review. Approximately half the number (3.681) were found to be in receipt of 90 per cent. or more of the appropriate statutory minimum rates and about half (3,396) to be in receipt of less than 90 per cent. of those rates.

In 67 cases the Department prosecuted offending employers under the Trade Boards Acts and in three cases civil proceedings were taken on behalf of workers for the recovery of arrears, the corresponding figures for 1925 being 27 criminal and eight civil proceedings. The increase in the number of criminal proceedings instituted in 1926 was the result of a stricter policy designed to improve the general level of compliance with the Trade Boards Acts.

Of the 67 cases in which criminal proceedings were taken 60 involved the underpayment of workers. The remaining seven involved charges of failure to post notices, failure to keep wages records, obstruction of inspectors and the furnishing of false information. Of the 60 cases which involved charges of underpayment 37 were associated with other charges; of these the chief were failure to keep records, failure to post notices and the furnishing of false information.

The result of criminal proceedings under the Trade Boards Acts was that in 57 cases convictions were obtained upon all, or in a few cases upon some, of the charges, and fines were imposed. Convictions were recorded, but no fines imposed, in three cases; six cases were dismissed, two of them under the Probation of Offenders Act; and in one Scottish case the charge was not proven. One case which was dismissed in the local Court is now the subject of appeal to the High Court.

The penalties imposed in respect of convictions obtained in 1926 amounted to £828 12s. 6d., with £149 2s. 1d. costs against the defendants. In one case which was dismissed on a question of fact costs of £1 1s. were given against the Department. As a result of criminal proceedings instituted for underpayment arrears were paid or ordered to be paid in all cases in which conviction was obtained except two. In connection with these two cases workers had, in one case, accepted, prior to the hearing, a sum in settlement of the arrears which was less than that claimed on their behalf, and in the other case a claim has been made by the Department for the arrears due to the workers concerned.

In connection with the three cases in which civil proceedings were undertaken during 1926 the full amount of the claim and costs were, in one case, paid prior to the date of hearing and no order was made by the Court. In the other two cases judgment was entered for the claim and costs.

In addition to the proceedings under the Trade Boards Acts, the Department prosecuted two employers under the Forgery Act. In one case the verdict was "not guilty" and in the other the two persons charged were sentenced to imprisonment in the second division.

Special Inquiries.

During the year 1926 15 special inquiries were undertaken by inspectors into matters affecting the minimum rates in 12 of the trades covered by the Trade Boards Acts. These inquiries were made either for Departmental information or at the request of a Trade Board. The following inquiries may be mentioned.

Investigation was made into several matters affecting the rope, twine and net trade. At the request of the Trade Board an investigation was made into the yield of the general minimum

piece rates for braiding trawl nets by hand and an inquiry was made for departmental information into the work of mending garden netting.

An inquiry was undertaken into the yield of the general minimum piece rate which the Drift Nets Mending Trade Board proposed to fix for home-workers.

For the Jute Trade Board an inquiry was made into the wages and working conditions of dressers and beamers employed in the jute trade; and a further investigation was made with a view to providing the Department with information in connection with a proposal to extend the definition of the General Waste Materials Reclamation Trade Board to include work in connection with jute waste handled outside jute mills.

In connection with a proposal of the Chain Trade Board to vary general minimum piece rates in the women's section of the trade an inquiry was made into the relative yield of the piece rates for different sizes of chain.

An inquiry, for the information of the Department, was made into the position with regard to the manufacture of locks and hasps intended to be fitted to suit and attaché cases, and the extent to which such manufacture is within the scope of the Stamped or Pressed Metal Wares Trade Board.

CHAPTER VI.

LABOUR STATISTICS.

The Ministry of Labour regularly collects and publishes information and statistics relating to the principal features of the labour situation both in this country and in countries oversea. The information and statistics relating to this country are compiled chiefly from original material collected by the Ministry of Labour or other Government Departments; in the case of countries oversea they are taken mainly from the official publications of those countries or of the International Labour Office.

PUBLICATIONS AND SPECIAL INQUIRIES.

Ministry of Labour Gazette.

This Gazette, which is published on or about the 18th of each month, contains the latest official statistics relating to employment, unemployment, and unemployment insurance; changes in working-class cost of living; changes in rates of wages and hours of labour; strikes and lock-outs; industrial diseases and fatal accidents; poor law relief; building plans approved, &c.; and to the state of employment and changes in cost of living in countries oversea. In addition, particulars are regularly published as to arbitration and conciliation cases under the Industrial Courts Act, 1919, and the Conciliation Act, 1896; orders, notices,