The Labour Reformer.

Mr. Reeves was only three years in Parliament before he became a Minister. His vigorous opposition to the old order of things clearly marked him out for Cabinet rank when the Liberal Party, of which Ballance and Seddon and John Mackenzie were the chief stalwarts, secured victory over the diehards of the Conservative army. Reeves' first portfolio was that of Education. In this capacity he initiated a number of improvements in the school syllabus and the general management of the education system. A little later he was Minister of Justice. Then, when the Department of Labour was established, with Mr. Edward Tregear as its first Secretary, he was the first Minister, and he threw all his talent and his enthusiasm into the legislation that focussed on New Zealand the attention of industrial and social reformers all over the world. Here was something new, an unknown little country at the back of beyond putting into practice new and quite daring methods of securing better terms for the working classes and means for page 18 settling industrial disputes. The measures initiated by Mr. Reeves and his Department and passed by the Seddon administration included the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the Factories Act, Shops and Shop Assistants' Act, and the Employers' Liability Act. These laws, now so familiar a part of our industrial life, marked the beginning of the new order, the breaking into a new trail of social betterment.