Voluntary conciliation machinery can function successfully only in those trades where both employers and workpeople are sufficiently well-organized to enable a collective agreement to be made effective. There must always remain a large section of industry which is poorly organized and for which other means are required for the proper regulation of conditions. State action has accordingly been found necessary to enable the less well-organized trades to fix minimum wages and to enforce proper observance of them; this has been done by means of Trade Boards. The Trade Boards Act of 1909 was passed with the avowed object of eradicating the evils of “sweating”; four trades only were included under the Act, but power was given to the responsible Department (then the Board of Trade) to bring additional trades under the Act from time to time by Provisional Order. In 1918, an amending Act was passed substituting procedure by Special Order for procedure by Provisional Order and modifying the description of the trades which could be brought under the Acts. The Minister of Labour is empowered to extend the Trade Boards Acts to trades to which the Acts do not already apply, if he considers there is no effective machinery in them for the regulation of wages, and that, in view of the rates of wages prevailing in them, a Trade Board is desirable. For this purpose an investigation into the conditions in the industry is first made and, if there be a _prima facie_ case for the application of the Acts, the Minister gives notice of his intention to make a Special Order under the Acts. A period of at least forty days must be allowed, in which, if objections are received, the Minister must order a public inquiry to be held by some person not in Government employment, unless he decides to amend or withdraw the order, or unless the objections are merely frivolous. On receiving the report of the inquiry, the Minister then decides whether he should make an Order with a view to establishing the proposed Trade Board or not. A Trade Board consists of an equal number of representatives of employers and of workpeople in the trade, to whom are added a neutral chairman and two or four persons unconnected with the trade, who are known as “appointed members.” Where there is any organization among the workpeople or employers, the Trade Unions and employers’ associations are asked to nominate representatives. Where there is no effective organization, the only practicable method is for the Minister to nominate members selected to represent the various types of work done in the trade and the various districts where it is carried on. The number of members varies according to the needs of the trade. Where women are largely employed in the trade, at least one of the “appointed members” must be a woman.