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 As time went on, however, it became clear that the status of the Boards was not satisfactory. Something would have to be done to change their constitution or amend it. No opportunity of throwing discredit on the Boards was lost. As has been stated, they can summon witnesses and compel persons to attend their sittings. Employers, acting under compulsion, put in an appearance when cited, but many of them openly announced their intention of ignoring the recommendations, and of taking the disputes on to the Court, no matter what the nature of the Boards’ conclusions might be.

An outcry was raised throughout the whole colony in 1901 when it was reported that no fewer than 400 employers in one trade had been summoned before a Conciliation Board. That body was denounced on all sides. It was asserted that the employers were being persecuted, and Mr. Seddon startled the colony by stating that the unions were “riding the thing to death.” Later on, however, it was explained that at first only a few of the employers were cited. They insisted that the citation should be extended, and they forced the union to cite four hundred, ostensibly to bring all the employers into line, but really, it was reported at the time, to bring the Boards into disfavour.

A leading boot manufacturer complained that one of the Boards dealt with the bootmakers’ log, containing hundreds of items, considered all the conditions submitted by both sides, took voluminous evidence, and came to a decision in about the same time that an ordinary man would take to read the documents submitted. The Court, he added, spent double the time over the dispute, although the differences had been narrowed down to three points. He therefore inferred that the Board had performed its duty in a perfunctory manner.

Dissatisfaction grew, until the opponents of the Boards succeeded in partially superseding them and brushing them away. A clause was inserted in the Act providing that a Special Board of Conciliation may, on the application of all parties to a dispute, be set up to meet an emergency or deal with any special case. These bodies have the same constitution and powers as