is an Act to regulate the conditions under which work on the gum-fields is carried on. Shearing sheds on farms, runs, and stations all over the colony are inspected by factory inspectors. The shearers must be supplied with proper sleeping and other accommodation. If no provision is made, or if the accommodation is not sufficient, an inspector serves the owner with a notice setting forth what is required, and if the notice is not complied with the owner is brought before a magistrate and fined. Servants’ registry offices are strictly supervised, and steps are taken to prevent unscrupulous agents from exploiting those who deal with them. Every registry office must be licensed, and books and records must be kept and be thrown open to inspection. The proprietor of a registry office is not allowed to take in servants as lodgers; neither he nor any member of his family may have any interest in servants’ lodging houses; and each application for a license must be accompanied by a certificate of good character.[1]
The Labour Department, with bureaux in all parts of the colony, takes a prominent place in the administration of the labour laws. The establishment of these bureaux was urged strongly when the last Conservative Ministry was in power by several of the liberal associations that had been formed then. Mr. Reeves, however, states that the idea first took practical shape in the first year of the Ballance Administration. In May, 1891, he says, a deputation of Wellington members of Parliament waited on the Premier and asked that something should be done to relieve the congested labour-market and deal with he Wellington unemployed. A suggestion was made to one of the Premier’s colleagues, who was in the room, that Government officials should be used to furnish reports from country districts where there was any demand for workmen. The hint was taken, and the first Australasian Labour Bureau, which was soon made a department, was established. Mr. E. Tregear, who was well known to members of the Ballance Administration
- ↑ This short account of the scope of labour legislation is condensed from Mr. Tregear’s introduction to the “Labour Laws.” The enactments deal with labour legislation as it stands on the Statute Book at present. Most of the Acts were brought in by the Liberal Party, but labour provisions were in operation before 1891, as explained above.
