The scene of a sitting of the Court of Arbitration can easily be called up from newspaper descriptions. The room is plain and not large. At the upper end, between the two arbitrators, sits the judge in wig and gown. Men and masters, easily distinguishable by differences of dress, manner and speech, face each other across a table; in the body of the room reporters and a sprinkling of spectators are gathered to listen. The matter in hand is stated; then the representative of the men’s union or of the associated masters sets forth the plea of his clients, no counsel being employed except by agreement of both parties. The cost and the duration of proceedings are, no doubt, both lessened by this provision; and it is said that the unprofessional advocates on the two parts often show remarkable ability in the conduct of the case. In Victoria a different method of fixing a minimum wage has been adopted; the method not of the Conciliation Board and Court of Arbitration but of the Wage Board. The mechanism of the Wage Boards is much more easily described and understood than that of the New Zealand Boards and Court; and it is, no doubt, partly, though not wholly, upon this account that advocates of the minimum wage are apt to propose the Victorian rather than the New Zealand model for imitation. Personally, however, considerable study of both plans has convinced me that the New Zealand method is, in practice, the less cumbrous, and that it includes features of great value that are lacking in the Victorian system. Especially valuable seems to be the singular ease with which its machinery can be brought to bear upon the poorest workers. Were the law of New Zealand also the law of England I would myself engage to collect, within six months, from each of half a dozen underpaid women’s trades the seven workers necessary to form the required unions, and so to bring these half dozen trades within the purview of a Conciliation Board. Such Boards are established upon being asked for by a registered association of workers (or of employers), whereas the Victorian Wage Boards can only be established in any trade by a resolution of both Houses of Parliament; and, on this side of the ocean at least, Parliaments are apt to require much moving before they can be made to act.