OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE

Evening Star, Issue 3840, 15 June 1875, Page 3

OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE

On the 31st March last the population of the Colony, Maories and Chinese excluded, was divided by the Registrar-General into the following classes;— Professional, 6,460 5 domestic, 184,963 ; commercial, 13,297 ; agricultural, 34,390 ; industrial, 46,287 ; indefinite and nonproductive, 12,206 ; and occupation not stated, 1,911. Upon these figures the ‘ N»w Zealand Times’ comments thus;—“We should very much like to know who and what manner of colonists compose classes VI, and VII. ‘ Inde finite and non-productive,’ and ‘ occupation not stated,’ which is exceedingly indefinite, may be non-productive also. We have a theory regarding the non-producing classes which may not be generally accepted. It is this : we class th© bulk of the * public servants * among nonproducers. They toil not, neither do they spin ; but are maintained by the people to do the people s work. They earn their money, doubtless, but as we understand the term ‘ nonproducers,’ they clearly fall within that description. We say this, however, without meaning any offence to a highly respectable body of men. The tables before us throw some light upon the subject. We find the apEarent proportion of drones to the working ees to be ; ~ Males. Fi males. Class VI 11,485 ... 721 Class VII 1,748 ... 163 The proportional percentage of class VI. is 6.787 males and .562 females. The greater number of the ‘ indefinite and non-productive ’ class is to be found ‘ outside cith s and towns,’ and a comparatively insignificant number on goldfields. On the goldfields of the Colony, | when the census was taken, there weie 1,344 persons returned under the two non productive heads, of whom seventy-four were females.

This says a great deal for general industrial pursuits on the goldfields. However, it is only fair to state that in class VI, in a subsequent classification, there are 9,032 laborers who, we submit, ought to have appeared among the industrial classes.” •