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The article analyzes the system of industrial arbitration in New Zealand. Compulsory arbitration legislation is primarily aimed at reducing industrial strife. The U.S. and Great Britain do not have compulsory arbitration laws. Comparative data on days lost in selected industries among Australia, New Zealand, United States and Great Britain indicate that countries without compulsory industrial arbitration laws have fewer workdays lost owing to strikes. Governments do not prosecute the strikers and their leaders in the majority of illegal strikes.

The article focuses on issues related to democracy. The importance of trying to understand democracy at the present time is very apparent. In some sense or other, it is more and more coming to be recognised as the dominant tendency in all those countries that are commonly described as civilized. And, indeed, in nearly all parts of the world the various countries seem to be approximating to a common civilization, which is largely based on principles of a democratic type. It is perhaps in some of the smaller countries, such as Switzerland, and in some of the younger colonies, such as Australia and New Zealand, that these democratic tendencies can be studied in their least diluted form. In Great Britain, notwithstanding the strong tendency that it has to cling to the traditions of the past, it can hardly be questioned that the influence of democratic ideals is constantly increasing. This influence is not confined to the sphere of imperial or local politics, but permeates whole life of the British.