TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1546, 16 September 1912, Page 4

TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

DEPARTMENT'S ANNUAL EEPORT.

Tho twenty-first annual report of the .Department of Labour was presented to the House of Representatives on Friday afternoon. It describes the past fiscal year as a normal one. There has not been any undue fluctuation in trade, and generally epenking «ll branches of industry have been steadily employed. Tho winter, months passed away without any congestion of unemployed ia any part of the Dominion, and tho number of men assisted by the Department, shows n decrease from 7102 in 1910-11 to 3735. The usual shortage of faiiu labourers was experienced during tho spring and summer months, unci overseas arrivals were welcomed. Kclioble evidence has been given to the Department that in a number of. instances lor wnges of from 255. to 30s. per week men in tho dairying districts are expected? to "work from, i a.m. to 8 p.m., and when tho season Blackens they have to face discharge or reduced earnings. Theso methods aro considered as responsible lo some extent for the shortage of farm labour, as men will not willingly accept such conditions. During the. coining. ;simsoV tho Department will give preference to employers who guarantee workers some reasonable period of employment. As announced last year, the Department' has decided to improve the industrial statistics by making them cover tho work douo in the factories throughout the year. This information will be collected once in iivo years only, and in order to disti'ibuto the work, the factories will bo divided into five trade groups, and ono group will be taken in each of tho five years. For tho convenience of employers arrangements will bo made for the required information to be collected by the Department direct from their wages books. The first set of tho new statistics will 1» published later, as an appendix to tho Department's report. In future information will bo. collected' for comparisons Lot ween the rates provided in the various awiuds and the aotual wages paid to workers.

The total number of factories is 12,847, an increase of 121. The proportion of boys and girls of U to 1C years of age employed in factories has decreased from 25 2-3rds per 100 factory workers in 1908-9, to 23 per 100 in 1910-11. for the iirst time, hotels are included in the figures for shops, and largely owing to this fact substantial increases aro shown in the figures. Tho number of shops lias increased by 1733 to 1G.577 omplovees by 70C6 to 29,671 employers by 3585 to 19,367, and wages.by .£402,752 to £2,375,147. Tho total wages paid to ehop. hotel, and restaurant assistants in the four cities aro as follow;— Auckland, £318,918 i eiiristchurch, £:«)8,132 i Wellington, jeSßs,flGl; Uuncdin, £234,781. Adding I tho wages paid in surrounding districts, the order is reversed: Wellington district, .£1)73,704; Auckland district, ,£572,866; Canterbury district, £150,732; Otago aud Southland district. £423,708. This order is unchanged from the previous year, and there have been considerable increases in each city and district. Tho official reports show that the difnctilty of securing women workers growl more aculo with rach passing year, and with' rare exceptions there has lxicn work offering for nil women callers at the employment bureaux.