. CHAPTER XXV,
us, therefore, important to ensure that, if the links which do much to
hold together the existing structure are removed, there is sufficient
assurance that legislation and administration are not-completely divorced
from each other. }

Central Administration.
This need arises in the case of all labour laws, but it is more
imperative in some cases than in others. Acts whose essence is the
creation of civil privileges or liabilities, such as the Workmen’s Compensa-
tion Act and the Trade Unions Act, do not demand any intimate relation
between the authority responsible for the law and the authority responsi-
ble for the administration. Still less is such relation necessary in the case
of Acts which merely confer the power to invoke machinery, such as the
present Trade Disputes Act. On the other hand, in the case of protective
Acts, such as the Factories Act and the Mines Act, it is vital that the
authority passing the law should have the assurance that they will be made
universally effective. This point could be completely secured by making
the law and the administration both provincial or both central. As
regards the first of these alternatives, it is important to observe that it is
precisely in connection with laws of this type that the need for central
legislation is greatest and the peril of withdrawing legislative power from
the centre most acute. As regards the alternative of combining legisla-
tion and administration at the centre, the centralisation of some machinery
and particularly the factory inspection staff, would bring distinct ad-
vantages. The present system has led to unjustified variation from
province to province in the standard of enforcement of the Factories
Act ; some provinces administer the Act rigorously and others do not.
[t may render the factory inspectors at times unduly exposed to local
influence. It makes it difficult for the smaller provinces to recruit a
satisfactory staff; they cannot offer scope for advancement, cannot
look for or properly utilise high specialist qualifications, and are unable
to make satisfactory arrangements for leave vacancies. The Central
Government are deprived of experts on factory administration, and an
mspectorate divided between many Governments cannot get the fullest
value from common experience. Occasional or periodical conferences of
inspectors can do something to secure the pooling of experience, but
bhey cannot yield the results which are gained by an inspectorate working
as a single team. The administration of the Mines Act, which has always
been central, seems tous to have gained considerably thereby, and its
provincialisation, if that proves necessary, is bound to weaken its force.

Central Legislation and Provincial Administration.

We must recognise, however, that considerations with which
we are not competent to deal may make it inadvisable or impossible
b0 move in the direction of centralisation or even to maintain centralised
administration where that is at present in existence. If this proves
to be the case, we believe that the difficulties of combining central
legislation with provincial administration must be faced, as this com-
bination is, in our view, infinitely preferable to the complete withdrawal
of legislative power from the centre. So far as we are in a position to