H.—ll.

Expenditure on Court and Councils. The following table shows details of expenditure of (a) Conciliation Boards (under the old Act) for the year 1909-10; (b) Councils of Conciliation (under the present Act) for the years 1909-10, 1910-11, 1911-12, and 1912-13; and (c) Court of Arbitration for the same period:—

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 the Conciliation Councils shows an increase of £344 19s. Id. compared with last year's figures, and Arbitration Court expenditure an increase of £902 6s. The increased expenditure was due to the greater number of cases heard by both the Councils and the Court compared with the previous year.

The expenses of assessors of the Councils during 1912-13 for fees and travelling-expenses are as follow :—

Comparing the totals with last }'ear's expenditure (£1,930 6s. 10d.), there has been an increase this year of £153 Bs. 2d. Arbitration Court, etc. For the eight years, 1906-13, awards have been made by the Arbitration Court as follows : — Year. Number. Year. Number. 1905-6 ... ... 52 1909-10 ... ... ... 88 1906-7 ... ... ... 59 1910-11 ... ... ... 74 1907-8 ... ... ... 98 1911-12 ... ... . . 80 1908-9 ... .. ... 88 1912-13 ... ... ... 94* a total of 633 for the period. The awards and agreements actually- in force as at the 31st March last total 399, and the following table shows the number operating in each industrial district: — Northern ... ... ... 101 Taranaki ... ... ... 11 Wellington ... ... ... 104 Marlborough ... ... 7 Canterbury ... ... ... 85 Nelson ... ... ... 8 Otago and Southland ... 69 Westland ... ... ... 14 Cases taken by the Department for enforcement of awards, &c, in the Arbitration Court total thirteen, as against seventeen last 3 T ear. Most of the cases were taken in the Magistrates' Court, a total of 552 cases being dealt with in that Court. The total number of cases taken by the Department in both Courts is 565, of which 509 were successful. Two of the fifty-five dismissed cases were considered by the Stipendiary Magistrates as trivial and excusable, and were disposed of accordingly under section 16 of the Amendment Act, 1908. In three instances the cause of dismissal was owing to conflicting evidence, while the remaining cases, not being proved

* Of this numbsr four awards each operate in the four chief industrial districts, whilst one operates throughout the Dominica,

XV

1909-10. 1910-11. 1911-12. 1912-13. £ s. d. 14 14 0 2,562 1 10 4.325 13 3 £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Boards Councils Arbitration Court 2,897 6 2 3,897 13 5 3,612 6 6 3,312 7 11 3,957 5 7 4,214 13 11 Totals .. 6,902 9 I 6,794 19 7 6,924 14 5 8,171 19 6

Industrial District. Fees. Travellingexpenses. Total. forthern and Taranaki.. Vellington, Marlborough, Nelson, and Westland Janterbury and Otago and Southland £ s. d. 504 12 0 572 5 0 .. | 396 18 0 £ s. d. 84 8 0 358 14 4 166 17 8 £ s. d. 589 0 0 930 19 4 563 15 8 i Totals .. 1,473 15 0 610 0 0 2,083 15 0