price of goods supplied to the workman from any shop or warehouse kept or belonging to such employer, or in the profits of which the employer has any share or interest; and Section 6 prevents an employer from directly bringing an action against any workman for goods supplied to the workman by the employer as or on account of his wages or reward for his labour, or for any goods supplied to the workman at the employer's shop or warehouse, as before defined.

Employers breaking the Act are made liable to penalties. The exceptions to the Act consist of certain benefits for which deductions may be made by the employer, sometimes in particular industries, and always upon conditions. A tabular form of statement is probably the most intelligible.

Employers are also permitted to advance to a workman (a) his contributions to a friendly society or savings bank, (b) any money for his relief in sickness, and (c) any money for the education of his children.

The Truck Act, 1887.- The Truck Amendment Act, 1887, is the Act which made the definition of workman given in the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875, applicable

to the Truck Acts. It then proceeded to deal with ' subbing.' This is a practice by which workmen are allowed to draw wages in advance of the regular pay-day, accounting for the advances when pay-day comes. In the case of casual workers subbing is almost a necessity, as they may begin a new employment with practically no resources, and may not be able to hold on till pay-day comes. The grievances of the workmen were that 'subs' were arbitrarily withheld, and that a charge of some sort was made for this payment in advance. The 3rd Section remedied both these points by enacting that "whenever by agreement, custom, or otherwise a workman is entitled to receive in anticipation of the regular period of the payment of his wages an advance in part or on account thereof, it shall not be lawful for the employer to withhold such advance or make any deduction in respect of such advance on account of poundage, discount, or interest or any similar charge."

Under the Act of 1831 the agricultural labourer (technically a servant in husbandry) was excluded altogether. The definition of 'workman' introduced from the Act of 1875 included this class, and it was therefore necessary to provide by a separate section of the Act of 1887 for their position. Opportunity was, however, taken to define exactly what might be given to this class in addition to their wages, and as part of their remuneration, and the Act proceeds on the line of accepting the practice of good farmers. The 4th Section enacts that nothing in the Acts of 1831 or 1887 shall render illegal a contract with a servant in husbandry for giving him food, drink, not being intoxicating, a cottage, or other allowances or privileges in addition to money wages as a remuneration for his services. In other respects he is within these Acts, and it would not be legal, for instance, for his master to make him take bacon or potatoes in lieu of the whole or part of his money wages.

Sections 5 and 6 of the Act of 1887 fill up certain loopholes in the Act of 1831. A master must not pay wages by giving orders on tradesmen for goods, and a tradesman supplying goods on the master's order cannot sue the workman for

their price (Section 5). Again, no employer may directly or indirectly impose as a condition of employment on any workman any terms as to the place at which, or the manner in which, or the person with whom, any wages paid to the workman are to be expended, nor may any employer dismiss any workman from his employment on account of the place at which, or the manner in which, or the person with whom, any wages have been expended (Section 6).

Section 8 provides that no deduction shall be made from a workman's wages for sharpening or repairing tools, except by agreement not forming part of the condition of hiring.

Section 9 provides for a yearly audit by two auditors appointed by the workmen of the account which an employer is bound by the Act to keep of his receipts and expenditure in respect of deductions made from the wages of any workmen for the education of children, in respect of medicine, medical attendance, or tools. Subsequent legislation has done away with any occasion for deductions for the education of children and the supply of medicine and medical attendance, but this section is a valuable check on unfair deductions for sharpening or repairing tools.

Section 10 extends the benefit of the Truck Acts to certain classes of home-workers, who are technically not employed under a contract of service or under a contract personally to execute work, but under a contract of purchase and sale. The substance of it is as follows: Where articles are made by a person at his own home or otherwise without the employment of any person under him except a member of his own family, the Truck Acts shall apply as if he were a workman, and the shop-keeper, dealer, trader, or other person buying the articles in the way of trade were his employer. The price is to be regarded as if it were wages earned during the seven days next preceding the date at which any article is received from the workman by the employer. The articles must be under the value of £5, and made up of wool, worsted, yarn, stuff, jersey, linen, fustian, cloth, serge, cotton, leather, fur, hemp, flax, mohair or silk, bone, thread, silk or cotton lace, or of lace made of any mixed materials. This list does not comprise the whole range of

home-made articles, omitting, for instance, steel toys and simple hardware. The operation of this section may be suspended by an Order in Council.

One weakness of the Act of 1831 was that no one was officially recognised as having a special duty to enforce the Act. It is a matter of common experience that to rely on individual workmen asserting their rights is to render an Act of Parliament nugatory. This is partly due to ignorance and partly to fear of consequences. The 13th Section deals with this drawback by making it the duty of the inspectors of factories and inspectors of mines to enforce the provisions of the Truck Acts, and giving these inspectors the same powers and authorities as they possess for enforcing the Factory Acts and the Mines Acts.

The Truck Act, 1896.-This Act deals with a matter of much greater complexity than the substitution of goods for wages in the payment of wages, viz. the keeping back of part of the wages as a fine or deduction for breaches of discipline, spoilt work, etc., and the making of charges for materials, tools, standing-room, power, etc. As proposals on the part of the Government for amending this Act were actually awaiting introduction at the outbreak of the War, it seems worth while to explain the relationship of this Act to the actual conditions of industry.

The maintenance of discipline is not a hardship on workers. If they are allowed to come late, to talk and waste time at work, the master's business must suffer, and he probably recoups himself by the payment of low wages. The writer's experience is that good discipline and good wages, poor discipline and poor wages go together. The easiest form of enforcing discipline is to fine the workman or workwoman who is guilty of an offence; and as these fines are a source of profit to the employer, they tend to become compensation for absence of discipline rather than a real effort to maintain discipline. The fines are usually quite arbitrary, that is to say, they have little relationship to the loss (if any) sustained by the employer. Many works of high standing and exemplary management have no recourse to fines.

The making of 'waste' by spoiling an article in the

course of manufacture is in some processes almost inevitable. The most careful workman is sometimes not so attentive as usual, or his usual skill for the moment fails him. The present writer knows no task more difficult than the attempt to assess the blame which can fairly be attached to a workman for spoilt work. A rough-and-ready way for an employer to deal with spoilt work is to make a deduction from wages. It is obvious that in the hands of an unscrupulous employer an unrestrained power of levying fines and making deductions might lead to great abuses.

With regard to things charged for, these vary from cottons supplied to home-workers to standing-room and power supplied to independent piece-workers in a tenement factory, and cover many cases in which the ignorance or poverty of the worker deprives him or her of effective bargaining power.

The object of the Truck Act, 1896, is to limit an employer's right to make deductions. The terminology of the Act is a little confusing. The writer uses the word 'fine' in relation to Section 1, which deals with discipline; the word ' deduction' in relation to Section 2, which deals with spoilt work, etc.; and the word 'charge' in relation to Section 3, which deals with the supply of materials, tools, etc., by an employer.

Under Section I of the Act, fines for breaches of discipline are only permissible when made in pursuance of or in accordance with a contract relating to fines which satisfies certain conditions.

(1) (a) The terms of the contract must be contained in a notice kept constantly affixed at such place or places open to the workman, and in such a position that it may be easily seen, read, and copied by any person whom it affects; or (b) there must be a contract in writing signed by the workman. In other words, an employer who wants to be in a position to fine his work-people must either put up a notice in his works, or get signed agreements from his work-people.

(2) The contract must specify the acts or omissions in respect of which the fine may be imposed, and the amount of the fine or the particulars from which that amount may be ascertained.