At the close of our discussion, then, we arrive at the general rule that the intention or motive of a party, when material to the controversy, are questions of fact, and, if unambiguous terms in a contract or the rights of others, who depend upon visible acts, are not involved, may be testified to directly by the party whose intention is the subject of the inquiry. And this, if we admit the propriety of the legislative power authorizing parties to tes tify, is a valid and just rule. The law, with sufficient reason, requires the production of the best evidence of which the situation ad mits. The best evidence, therefore, of the party's intention should be admitted, and that best evidence must necessarily come from one who knows most about the inten tion. Facts and circumstances are certainly not as good, whatever may be the relative probability as to veracity. The very fact that this question of inten tion is one which is difficult to answer is a reason why the one who knows most about it should be permitted to tell what he knows, and requires that the pains and penalties of perjury should be visited with the same rigor upon the fa'.se witness to intention or motive as upon a false witness to a fact or conduct visible to ocular sense. The jury are still permitted to determine the case from all the evidence, and are not in any sense bound by what he says his intention was; what he says is to be considered with the other facts and circumstances. If these show that he testi fied falsely, when he said he had a certain intention, then his testimony ought to be disbelieved, but if no discredit is thrown upon his testimony and he is a proper witness, there is clearly .no impropriety in believing what he savs his intention was.
THE "Australian Letter" in The Law Times (London), for May 28, gives some in teresting information about industrial arbi tration in one of the Australian colonies: There has been in operation in New South Wales for about three vears a Court of In
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dustrial Arbitration, which was established to settle all trade disputes, to enable the lamb to lie down with and outside of the Kon, to abolish strikes, and to link the arms of labor and capital in friendly brotherhood. For these purposes it was given plenary powers, but the exercise of these powers has brought about such a state of things that the lion still looks to having the lamb inside when he lies down with him, men will strike, and labor refuses to link a friendly arm with capital. The court is composed of a Su preme Court judge as president, together with two other non-professional men, one of whom is a representative of employers, the other -of employés. The court has in reality become a board to fix wages, hours of work, and the class of labor to be em ployed. On the latter point it has in every case laid down the law that a member of a trade union must get the preference when a vacancy among workmen has to be filled. The result of the court's work, so far, has been to deter capital from investment in the State, as virtually, it regulates and directs the manner in which every industry shall be carried on. It has been, in a lean time, a welcome guest to lawyers, although, when first engaging in work, strenuous efforts were made by the powers of labor to exclude professional lawyers from practising before it. The condition of things brought about by an award of the court and a subsequent decision of it in the interpretation of its own award, in a dispute in the coal mining indus try, will be an excellent object-lesson for those who desire an industrial arbitration tribunal to be sent up in those countries at present free from such a growth. Many months ago the miners in the collieries of the northern district of New South Wales united by their lodges to form the Colliery Employés Federation as a legal personality under the Arbitration Act, so that the ma chinery of the Act might be made applicable. The employers formed a similar union. The court was called on to give an award on disputed points between .these two bodies, and it complied with the application, the
