THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 19, 17 October 1907, Page 5

THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

■ ' The Labour Department has issued a publication giving an,account of its own organisation and work. It is well printed on fine paper arid contains numerous illustrations. Amongst the illustrations are portraits of the late Mr. Seddon, Sir Josoph Ward, tho Hon. W. P. Reeves, the Eon. W. Hall-Jones, the Hon. J. A. Millar, Mr..Edward Tregear, and the late Mr. James Mackay. There, are pictures of shearers' sleeping quarters, old style and new style, showing a great contrast, of workers' dwellings, groups, of. navvies on the North Island Trunk Railway, . and Of English navvies ■ with their wives and children en routo to the railway works. ' The Department was started n 1891 by tho late Hon. John Ballance for tho purpose of trying to meet tho "unemployed difficulty" which was at that time in pressing existence in all the larger towns. The pamphlet now issued gives the. history of the Department and a summary of tho different Acts dealing with industries and labour. The, Department, which began in a modest way, with a staff, of Messrs. Tregear, and Mackay alone, . has now increased to sixty-three members. The pamphlet states that tho Department has the in-, tercsts of 75,310 factory workers and 2D,MI shop-assistants in its charge. Tho Department's correspondence, especially from America regarding tho compulsory arbitration law, is increasing with every mail. It is, also stated that many thousands of newcomers havo sought advice and assistance of the Depart T ment and it would be difficult to estimate the number who owe their first start in life in the colony to the agency of the Department.