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lie may consider necessary whether they are parties to the dispute or not, to confer with him with the object of endeavouring to arrive at an amicable settlement. When any such conference is convened by the Judge he shall have power to order that any award or agreement in existence at the commencement of the dispute shall continue in force until the termination of the conference. "7. The Act to be amended to permit the registration of a national union of workers in any industry wherein all existing unions of the workers and all unions or associations of employers are agreed thereto. " 8. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act shall for the purposes of those amendments apply to industrial unions and industrial associations either of workers or employers already registered under that Act, and also to unions or societies of workers (whether incorporated or not and whether registered under any Act or not), and to members of any such union or society, and to the employer or employers of any such workers. It shall be optional with any guild of purely non-manual workers incorporated under the Unclassified Societies Act, 1908, whether it comes under this section or not. "9. It shall be a provision of any award or agreement covering any industry or branch of an industry that an Industrial Committee representative of the employers and workers in the industry or branch thereof may be set up by mutual agreement, to function throughout the period of the award or agreement, to deal with any one or more of the following matters : — " (1) The settlement of disputes upon any matters incidental to or arising out of the award or agreement, other than hours and wages rates which are fixed in the award or agreement. " (2) The consideration of any new matters which any party to the award or agreement may submit for consideration. " (3) To report to any recognized authority dealing with immigration or unemployment upon the prospects of employment in the trade or industry. " Any such committee shall function throughout the area covered by the award or agreement under which it is set up. It may be for a local district or for more than one district, or for all districts, as the award or agreement shall provide. " 10. Any agreement relating to wages and conditions of employment of any workers (whether expressed as an industrial agreement under this Act or not) made with any industrial union of workers or any union or society of workers referred to in clause 8 hereof shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of the industrial district where the agreement is made within thirty days of the making thereof, and if not so filed the union or society of workers a party thereto, or an association of employers if a party thereto, shall be subject to a penalty of £5 for any day during which such default continues. "11. Every agreement or award shall contain a provision that, where mutually agreed upon between unions of workers engaged in the industry thereby covered and the employers therein, any work in such industry may be carried on and paid for under a system of piecework or contract in lieu of under time payments." The great difficulty in regard to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act is that an attempt has been made to make the Act do the impossible. It is impossible to make arbitration compulsory, and that has been proved during* the years of our experience of the working of the Act. As it is impossible to make arbitration compulsory, we want to make it optional; and, while we make reference to the Court optional, we are earnestly desirous of protecting weak organizations, which it is feared might suffer hardship without the protection of the arbitration system, until such time as they become accustomed to the alteration of the system. The whole of these clauses have been framed with the object of substituting optional for compulsory arbitration, while at the same time protecting those organizations which have grown up under the compulsory system of organization, and which might find themselves in a difficulty if the protection of that system were suddenly withdrawn from them. We realize, sir, that in cases of serious dispute between employers and workers it is impossible, in the ultimate issue, to abrogate the right to strike or the right to lock out. The whole power of negotiation of workers with their employers depends upon their right to withhold their labour, and we are of the opinion that that right cannot be denied in the ultimate issue. Our experience has shown that the attempt to deny that right is a failure, and impossible of attainment. In the ultimate issue, if the difference is so serious that it cannot be settled by negotiation, our experience has proved that it cannot be settled by law ; and the strike has to come in such a case. But a great deal can be done to minimize the risk of the strike, and we can provide machinery for a thorough investigation of the disputes before a deadlock is reached ; and in framing these clauses we have that in mind. We have endeavoured to provide the most perfect machinery we can with the object of ensuring a meeting of the parties, a thorough investigation of their differences ; and we think that we have gone as far as it is humanly possible to prevent the distress and upheaval resulting from a strike. Taking the clauses in detail, clause 2 provides for an increase in the number of assessors in either District Conciliation Councils or in Dominion Conciliation Councils. The object of that clause will be seen very readily if I first discuss clause 3, which provides that " in any dispute in which the assessors fail to agree in Conciliation Council the dispute shall be referred to the Court only if three of the four assessors on each side in a district dispute, or five of the seven assessors on each side in a Dominion dispute, consent thereto." The reason for increasing the number of assessors is disclosed by that portion of clause 3. We have endeavoured to minimize the risk of an extremist on either side holding up conciliation proceedings and refusing to go to the Court of Arbitration. We think that if you have only three assessors on each side, and you have one out of the three holding extreme views prepared to take the responsible step of refusing to go to arbitration, there is a greater prospect of that one man influencing the other two than there would be if he had to influence another three, and we think that it is a safeguard against the extremists on either side to increase the number of assessors. Clause 3 then goes on to provide, " that if a Conciliation Council finds difficulty in arriving

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