CHAP. 3.—REGULATION IN AUSTRALIA 13

‘hem were important even before the war, when the purchasing
power of money did not change materially, and especially so in home
work where earnings had been far below the averages listed above
and frequently as low as 12 shillings a week. But in other trades
also the increases were important, even before the war. As to the
later years, we find increases which make up for the decrease in the
purchasing power of money.
In 1924 there were only 67 convictions for violations of determina-‘ions
 of wages boards.
‘Many employers, unable to pay the home workers the relatively
high wages fixed by the boards, substituted factory work for home
work. Some employers gave up their industries. but these cases were
very rare.
The masses of the workers appear to have acquired a sense of
security.’ Scientific and humane considerations determine the minimum
 of existence, having replaced to a large extent the changing
hazards of economic warfare and the hazards of blind fate. The
worker, knowing this, feels safe, and this conduces to a general tran-Iuillicy
 of mind and interest in the prosperity of the nation as a
whole.

Developments in Other States of Australia
Tasmania

THE island of Tasmania has followed the example of Victoria and
regulated its industrial life by wage boards, which have general
power to determine minimum wages as they deem fit, without waiting
 for any previous dispute.’* There were 50 boards in 1927 for a
otal of only 9,171 workers. The other four States of Australia, and
later the Commonwealth itself, followed the example of New Zealand,
which in 1894 established compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes.
 The results of that method are shown in detail in Chapter 4
(see p. 22), which analyzes its development in New Zealand, where
It remained free from cross-currents and particularly from partial
amalgamation with the wage-board system, as in Victoria; but the
methods of the Australian States will be examined here briefly as a
basis for considering Australian results.

Western Australia

Western Australia has maintained relatively pure the New Zealand
method. In the industrial arbitration acts, 1912-1925, unions and
employers’ associations are authorized to register (art. 6) and to
make industrial agreements among themselves (art. 85). The arbiration
 court, composed of one member nominated by the industrial
associations of the employers, one member nominated by the indus-Bee

 p. 1..
© Australia (Victoria). Department of Labor. Report of the Chief Inspector of Fac
tories and Shops for the year ended Dee. 31, 1924, Melbourne, 1925, p. 38.
1 Broda, R.: La fixation légale des salaires. Paris, 1912.
2 This seemed particularly striking to the author during his stay in Australia in 19086,
13 International Labor Office. Legislative series, 1924-—Australia 1 (Tasmania): An
act to amend “ The wage-board act, 1920,” dated Mar. 13, 1924. Geneva.
* Tasmania. Twelfth Annual Report of the Industrial Department for 1926-27,