As examples of what can be done by Special Order under Part I. of the Insurance Act, there may be mentioned a power given to the Insurance Commissioners to exclude certain persons from the category of outworkers, and to vary contributions in seasonal trades.

Under Part II. of the Insurance Act, the Board of Trade may after seven years, and with the sanction of the Treasury by Special Order, revise the rates of contribution.

The Board of Trade may also on certain conditions extend the provisions of Part II. to trades other than those scheduled.

In this case no such order is to be made if the person holding the inquiry in relation to the order reports that the Order should not be made. Thus an 'impartial and competent person' may have an absolute veto over the wishes of the Board of Trade. Then, again, the Board of Trade may by Special Order exclude certain employments. But in this case the Special Order takes effect, so far as Parliamentary interference is concerned, as if it were a Regulation and not a Special Order. The Board of Trade has made two Special Orders,1 extending Part II. of the Insurance Act. These will bring in (a) workmen in the trade of saw-milling, whether carried on in connexion with any other insured trade or not, and (b) workmen in the trade of repairing works of construction other than roads and the permanent way of railways. These are of course both comparatively unimportant extensions.

(C) LEGISLATION BY WAGES TRIBUNALS

When the Trade Boards Act, 1909, was passing through Parliament, it was not suggested that Parliament should take any direct part in fixing wages. When the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act, 1912, was under discussion, two attempts were made to saddle Parliament with this responsibility. One was a proposal to insert an elaborate schedule of wages, and the other to insert 5s. a day and 2s. a day as the wages for men and boys on day work. Parlia

1 These orders seem to have been in a state of suspended animation since the outbreak of the war.

ment rejected both proposals. It may therefore be inferred that the determination of wages by law is regarded as likely to be more efficiently carried out by some subordinate body. What Parliament did concern itself with was that masters and workmen should have an equal voice in the legislation, and that there should be ample preliminary discussion.

The Wages Tribunals set up by the Trade Boards Act and the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act consist of three sections: (a) representatives of employers, (b) representatives of workers, and (c) a neutral and impartial element, called in the former Act' appointed members' and in the latter Act the Chairman. (The first two classes are equal in number.) The usual number of appointed members of a Trade Board is three, though on the Tailoring Trade Board there are five. The Chairman under the Mines Act is usually a sole chairman, but in a few districts the chairmanship was constituted by three persons of equal authority. As elements (a) and (b) are rendered equal in voting strength, the real decisions on any matters on which the two sides do not agree rest with the impartial element.

In the case of the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act the trade was split up geographically into twenty-two sections, with independent Wages Boards, so that local feeling and local variations have had full play.

In the case of the Trade Boards under the Trade Boards Act, the material provisions for publicity and discussion are as follows.

A proposed determination as to rates of wages must pass through a proposal stage of three months, during which it is exhibited in every known place of work where its provisions are to take effect. During this period objections may be lodged by any interested person, and these objections must be considered by the Trade Board before the rate is adopted.

In the case of Boards covering the whole of England and Scotland, District Committees have been appointed, and these must be consulted before a rate is adopted.

Even when a rate is adopted it comes into limited

operation for a period of six months, and this six months may be extended by the Board of Trade, who have also other powers of delay.

The fixing of a minimum wage for a trade may be a very simple or a very complex matter according to circumstances, but it usually involves legislating on ancillary matters, so that the determinations' of a Trade Board or of a Joint Board under the Mines Act may be lengthy and elaborate pieces of legislation.

In the case of Trade Boards provision has had to be made for persons who are learning the trade, and this has involved special scales of wages for learners at different periods of learnership, and some simple precautions for ensuring that persons receiving less than the standard adult rate are really in fact as well as in name 'learners.' Under the Mines Act the Boards have power to lay down conditions, on the observance of which the right to the minimum wage depends. In some districts these conditions are most elaborate.

(D) LEGISLATION BY LOCAL BYE-LAWS

The Employment of Children Act, 1903, gives local authorities considerable powers of legislation by bye-law in respect of children under 14. Thus the clause in the Act restricting night work for children may be varied by a local bye-law. Further, local authorities have power to make bye-laws as to the general employment of children. In the matter of street-trading, the power of local authorities to legislate extends to children under 16 years of age. This power is conveniently given to local authorities in regard to children, as the local authority is also the education authority.

These powers have been exercised to a considerable extent, and an analysis of this legislation will be found in Mr. F. Keeling's book on Child Labour in the United Kingdom.

Further, under the Shops Act, 1912, Section 4, local authorities may by order fix the day of the week for the statutory half-holiday for shops, and under Section 5 may make closing orders,' to be confirmed by the Secretary of State (see Appendix VI.).

CHAPTER IV

THE CONTRACT OF SERVICE

A SERVANT has already been defined as a person who for remuneration agrees to work according to the orders of another. What servants are included in industrial legislation, and what other persons besides servants are treated on the same footing as servants, has already been set forth in the chapter on The Scope and Definitions of Industrial Legislation.

A contract of service is a particular form of a legal agreement. The text-books tell us that a contract is an agreement which is enforceable at law, and that an agreement in its simplest form takes place when two parties' declare their consent as to something which is to be done by one or both of them. The two parties' in a contract of service are the employer' and the workman,' and the things to be done are work on the one side and payment of wages on the other.

Capacity to Contract—Infants.- Before a person can legally become a 'party' to a 'contract' the law must recognise his legal capacity to contract. A person over 21 years of age, of sound mind, has a general power of becoming a party to a contract, but in the case of persons under 21 (and in certain other cases not material to our purpose) there is a limitation of this power. Such persons under 21 are known as 'infants,' and a contract of service to be binding on an infant must be shown to be beneficial to him. The Courts might conceivably have utilised this Common Law rule to prevent the sweating of and cruelty to children and

young persons which characterised the earlier periods of the Industrial Revolution, but the Elizabethan Poor Law had long since established the theory that to set children to work was beneficial both to the child and to society, and that employment on practically any terms was more beneficial than no employment at all. The writer is not aware of any case in which the legality of a contract of service has been disputed by a person under 21 on account of lowness of wages or unsuitability of work. The kind of case which does come before the Courts is the following: 1 A lad of about 19 years of age engaged himself as a milk-carrier. Among other terms of his contract was an undertaking on his part not to compete with his master, after leaving his employment, within a radius of 5 miles and for a period of two years after leaving. Soon after attaining the age of 21 he left his master's service and set up business for himself, and repudiated this stipulation on the ground that it was not beneficial to him. The Court said, "When any stipulation is relied upon by the infant as being unfair to him, it is the duty of the Court to decide on the construction of the whole contract, and then to say whether as a whole it is clearly and manifestly for the benefit of the infant. . . If there is any stipulation such as to make the whole contract an unfair one, then the whole contract is void." The Court further said, "Some of the stipulations will no doubt be in favour of the master, but an infant cannot pick these out and use them to get out of his bargain." It was held in this case that the contract as a whole was beneficial, and that without some such stipulation against future competition, milk-carriers would not be likely to get employment.

Apprenticeship.-The Common Law recognises a special form of the contract of service in the case of persons under 21 years of age which is known as apprenticeship. This differs from the ordinary contract of service in that the master undertakes to teach the apprentice. The contract often included other terms, such as living in the master's house, but the essential point was, and is, the obligation on the master to teach the apprentice his trade. The Common

1 Evans and Ware, 1893, 3 Ch. 502.