MUNICIPAL FACTORIES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1036, 27 January 1911, Page 6

MUNICIPAL FACTORIES.

■" ~— — ♦ - ■ . THE OFFICIAL VIEW. -A Palmerston ■ telegram,'- printed yesterday, stated that tho Borough- Council in that i town had received notice from the Labour Department to', register tho Opera House, a metal pit, and waterworks as factories. The message further stated that the action of tho Department had aroused r a- certain'amount of critical comment. ,'."'.■

Officiate of the Labour: Department questioned yesterday statr-d, in tho first place, that tho duty of'the Department was simply to administer the law.as it stood, and not to , test v itBy' tho Consolidated Factories"^'brof 100S places in which municipal enterprises conducted'"for, trade or sale,'?, wcro located, were brought within tho definition of factories.- Under a. later amendment the definition ~of ''factory" in connection 'with municipal,'undertakings' was widened. Registration of,any municipal' establishment as" a factory, the. officials, stated, simply involved payment -of a registration fee of one shilling, and tho samo treatment of employees,' in regard to working .conditions, as '-as enforced iii private factories. Tho municipal establishment registered as a'factory was of course liable to visitation > by' aii inspector in tho same way as it would bo if it.were privately owned. The inclusion of waterworks. in tho message; .above referred to, the officials stated,' was possibly a_ mistake. • 1 .-• •-.-.