In view of these circumstances, therefore, it has been decided to adopt a single type of Industrial Council.

6. District Industrial Councils.-Paragraph 7 of the Second Report suggests that in certain industries in which a National Industrial Council is not likely to be formed, in the immediate future, it might none the less be possible to form one or more "District" Industrial Councils.

In certain cases the formation of joint bodies covering a limited area is probable. It would, however, avoid confusion if the term "District" were not part of the title of such Councils, and if the use of it were confined to District Councils in an industry where a National Council exists. Independent local Councils might well have a territorial designation instead.

7. Trade Boards in Relation to Joint Industrial Councils.The distinction between Trade Boards and Joint Industrial Councils has been set forth in paragraph 3 above. The question whether an Industrial Council should be formed for a given industry depends on the degree of organisation achieved by the employers and workers in the industry, whereas the question whether a Trade Board should be established depends primarily on the rates of wages prevailing in the industry or in any part of the industry. This distinction makes it clear that the question whether a Trade Board should or should not be set up by the Minister of Labour for a given industry, must be decided apart from the question whether a Joint Industrial Council should or should not be recognised in that industry by the Minister of Labour.

It follows from this that it is possible that both a Joint Industrial Council and a Trade Board may be necessary within the same industry.

In highly organised industries, the rates of wages prevailing will not, as a rule, be so low as to necessitate the establishment of a Trade Board. In some cases, however, a well-defined section of an otherwise well-organised industry or group of industries may be unorganised and ill-paid; in such a case it would clearly be desirable for a Trade Board to be established for the ill-paid section, while there should at the same time be an Industrial Council for the remaining sections, or even for the whole, of the industry or industrial group.

In the case of other industries sufficiently organised to justify the establishment of an Industrial Council, the organisations represented on the Council may nevertheless not be compre

hensive enough to regulate wages effectively throughout the industry. In such cases a Trade Board for the whole industry may possibly be needed.

Where a Trade Board covers either the whole or part of an industry covered by a Joint Industrial Council, the relations between them may, in order to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding, be defined as follows:

(1) Where Government Departments wish to consult the industry, the Joint Industrial Council, and not the Trade Board, will be recognised as the body to be consulted.

(2) In order to make use of the experience of the Trade Board, the constitution of the Industrial Council should be so drawn as to make full provision for consultation between the Council and the Trade Board on matters referred to the former by a Government Department, and to allow of the representation of the Trade Board on any Sub-Committee of the Council dealing with questions with which the Trade Board is concerned.

(3) The Joint Industrial Council clearly cannot under any circumstances over-ride the statutory powers conferred upon the Trade Board, and if the Government at any future time adopted the suggestion contained in Section 21 of the First Report that the sanction of law should be given on the application of an Industrial Council to agreements made by the Council, such agreements could not be made binding on any part of a trade governed by a Trade Board, so far as the statutory powers of the Trade Board are concerned.

The Minister of Labour will not ordinarily set up a Trade Board to deal with an industry or branch of an industry, in which the majority of employers and workpeople are covered by wage agreements, but in which a minority, possibly in certain areas, are outside the agreement. It would appear that the proposal in Section 21 of the First Report was specially designed to meet such cases. Experience has shown that there are great difficulties in the way of establishing a Trade Board for one area only in which an industry is carried on, without covering the whole of a Trade, though the Trade Boards Act allows of this procedure.

8. Trade Boards in industries which are not sufficiently organised for the establishment of a Joint Industrial Council.— Section 3 of the Trade Boards Act, 1909, provides that "a Trade Board for any trade shall consider, as occasion requires,

any matter referred to them by a Secretary of State, the Board of Trade, or any other Government Department, with reference to the industrial conditions of the trade, and shall make a report upon the matter to the department by whom the question has been referred."

In the case of an industry in which a Trade Board has been established, but an Industrial Council has not been formed, the Trade Board is the only body that can claim to be representative of the industry as a whole.

It is already under a statutory obligation to consider questions referred to it by a Government Department; and where there is a Trade Board but no Industrial Council in an industry it will be suggested to Government Departments that they should consult the Trade Board as occasion requires in the same manner as they would consult Industrial Councils.

On the other hand, for the reasons which have been fully set out above, Industrial Councils must be kept distinct from Trade Boards, and the latter, owing to their constitution, cannot be converted into the former. If an industry in which a Trade Board is established becomes sufficiently organised for the formation of an Industrial Council, the Council would have to be formed on quite different lines from the Trade Board, and the initiative should come, not from the Trade Board, which is a body mainly nominated by the Minister of Labour, but from the organisations in the industry. Hence it would not be desirable that Trade Boards should undertake the formation of schemes for Industrial Councils.

MINISTRY OF RECONSTRUCTION.

APPENDIX XI

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY

OBJECTS

THE advancement of the Pottery Industry and of all connected with it by the association in its government of all engaged in the industry.

It will be open to the Council to take any action that falls within the scope of its general object. Its chief work will, however, fall under the following heads:

(a) The consideration of means whereby all Manufacturers and Operatives shall be brought within their respective associations.

(b) Regular consideration of wages, piecework prices, and conditions with a view to establishing and maintaining equitable conditions throughout the industry.

(c) To assist the respective Associations in the maintenance of such selling prices as will afford a reasonable remuneration to both employers and employed.

(d) The consideration and settlement of all disputes between different parties in the industry which it may not have been possible to settle by the existing machinery, and the establishment of machinery for dealing with disputes where adequate machinery does not exist.

(e) The regularisation of production and employment as a means of insuring to the workpeople the greatest possible security of earnings.

(f) Improvement in conditions with a view to removing all danger to health in the industry.

(g) The study of processes, the encouragement of research, and the full utilisation of their results.

(h) The provision of facilities for the full consideration and the utilisation of inventions and improvements designed by

workpeople and for the adequate safeguarding of the rights of the designers of such improvements.

(i) Education in all its branches for the industry.

(j) The collection of full statistics on wages, making and selling prices, and average percentages of profits on turnover, and on materials, markets, costs, etc., and the study and promotion of scientific and practical systems of costing to this end.

All statistics shall, where necessary, be verified by Chartered Accountants, who shall make a statutory declaration as to secrecy prior to any investigation, and no particulars of individual firms or operatives shall be disclosed to any one.

(k) Enquiries into problems of the industry, and where desirable, the publication of reports.

(1) Representation of the needs and opinions of the industry to Government authorities, central and local, and to the community generally.

CONSTITUTION

(1) Membership. The Council shall consist of an equal number of representatives of the Manufacturers and the Operatives; the Manufacturers' representatives to be appointed by the Manufacturers' Associations in proportions to be agreed on between them; the Operatives' representatives by the Trade Unions in proportions to be agreed on between them. The number of representatives on each side shall not exceed 30. Among the Manufacturers' representatives may be included salaried managers, and among the Operatives' representatives some women operatives.

(2) Honorary Members. The Council to have the power to co-opt Honorary Members with the right to attend meetings or serve on committees of the Council, and to speak but not

to vote.

(3) Re-appointment. One-third of the representatives of the said Associations and Unions shall retire annually, and shall be eligible for re-appointment.

(4) Officers. The Officers of the council shall be:

(a) A Chairman and Vice-Chairman. When the Chairman is a member of the Operatives, the Vice-Chairman shall be a member of the Manufacturers, and vice-versa. The Chairman (or, in his absence, the Vice-Chairman) shall preside at all meetings, and shall have a vote, but not a casting