The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1913. BRITAIN’S HOME TRADE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8355, 15 February 1913, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1913. BRITAIN’S HOME TRADE

For the first time in her history Britain has now statistics showing the value of her homo industrial production. Returns of exports and imports have always been available, and monthly statements of these are cabled all over the world. But not until the present Liberal Government came into oiiice was there any authoritative attempt to estimate the nature and value oT the nation’s Industrial activity. The Census of Production Act passed in 1906 authorised the compulsory collection of statistics relating to the quantity and value of goods manufactured in the United Kingdom during the year 1907, whether intended for home consumption or for export. The census was commenced in 1908, and interim reports were issued from time to time. Tno final report was published on December alst last, in a liluc-book wfiioli is really a digest of a thousand .pages of reports and tables. 'inis colossal contribution to the economic Knowledge of the day is sure to prove of immense usefulness and value to all students of sociology* of the wages problem and the distribution of the national income. Its main value, however, will bo found when subsequent censuses are taken unci comparisons can be made. The second collection of statistics will bo in respect of the year I'JVZ. On the appearance of the next completed report will commence the real work of the investigation, for only then will it be possible to perceive the true industrial trend. . Newspapers to hand by this week’s mail from London contain summaries of this great census report. It should be stated that the Act did not stipulate tor the collection of statistics relating to agriculture and fisheries, but voluntary inquiries were nevertheless made by the Census of Production Office, with results enabling a fairly complete approximation to be arrived at. Leaving out these two avenues of income, the returns show the selling value of the gross output of other industries for 1907 as follows: £ England and Wales 1,490,000,000 Scotland 208,000,000 Ireland 67,000,000 United Kingdom ... £1,765,000,000 Tho cost of materials used in the production of that great wealth of manufactures was: £ England and Wales 868,000,000 Scotland 117,000,000 Ireland 43,000,000 United Kingdom ... £1,028,000,000 The value of “work given out”— that is, the amount paid by the manufacturers to other firms, was £25,000,000. This show's the net value of output, tho excess of gross output over cost of materials and amount paid to other firms, to be: £ England and Wales 603,000,000 Scotland 86,000,000 Ireland 23,000,006 United Kingdom ... £712,000,000 Now we come to the number of persons whose labours produced this great sura of national wealth, the average number of employees throughout the year (excepting outworkers) being: England and Wales 5,808,269 Scotland 885,403 Ireland 291,304 United Kingdom 6,984,976

Very unfortunately, tho Act did not compel a return to be made of wages paid. This is an omission which will no doubt become emphasised at Home with tho discussion of tho census report, and one which may be rectified by legislation. All who study the wages problem and the conditions of ‘‘social unrest” now stirring the best minds will realise how necessary it is for properly arriving at definite conclusions to know, together with the value of goods produced, the amount paid in wages to the producers. However, there is one thing that may ho arrived at by a simple sum in division—that is, the net value of output per person employed. We venture to say the result will surprise most people: £ England and Wales 104 Scotland 98 Ireland 78 United Kingdom 102 As everybody must know, these producers include a very large percentage of women and children. It is impossible to estimate their average wage, in order to Compare it with the average net value of output, but we can easily realise that there is an enormous gulf between the two. According to Mr Sydney Webb there were in 1907 (the year to which tho figures quoted in the foregoing refer) eight million people in ihe United Kingdom existing under conditions represented by adult male earnings of less than twenty shillings a week. Official returns state that 7,277,056 workers in Britain earned in an average from 9s 3d to 27s 4d per week. The average weekly earnings oi labourers —grown-up men—in the *uilineering trade was about 20s. Over 100,000 railway employees earned 2os , week or lees. Said the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman: “There are ibout 30 per cent, of our population unlerpaid, on the verge of hunger. Thirty ler cent, of our population is equal to ibout 45 per cent, of the wage-earners. Apparently nearly one-half of our workers live in actual poverty.” Messrs Cadbury and Shann in their book on “Sweating” say: “The average wage of an unskilled labourer in this coun-

try is from 17s Gd to 20s per week, so that, even with regular work, such a man cannot keep himself and his family above the border line.” A Government paper issued 9 few weeks ago stated that one hundred persons died :n England last year of actual starvation 1 Thorn is a wide field of activity for the social reformer in -Britain. But such reform, to be real and lasting, must be thorough. To alleviate poverty by means of charity is impossible for people with ordinary impulses to avoid, though it is greatly to bo feared that in tliis way tho ultimate result is really to subsidise the sweater. Drastic legislative action is demanded, for which exhaustive data is requisite. To this end, tho Census of Production should contribute