CENSUS, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 16 April 1907, Page 3

CENSUS, 1906.

REMARKS ONjSUMMARISED RESULTS. In regard to the returns of manufactories and works it is necessary, as a preliminary, to repeat the statements made at last census as to what has been included. Whereas up till the time of the census of 1901 the term "factory" was rather held to mean an establishment where manufactures were carried on wholesale, where machinery was employed, and where several hands worked together, in the returns for 1901 and 1906 a "factory" has been interpreted to mean any concern where two or more persons work together at making articles for disposal, wholesale or retail, and without reference to machinery being used or not. Thus these returns include certain industrial workers (and their production) where two or more are found together with manufactories to supply wholesale traders or making for export. ' But the attempt has been made to approximate the census results to those of the Labour Department, according to special direction. The totals for the industries do not include mining, quarrying, and the fisheries, which are dealt with separately. Manufactories and Works, 1906 and 1901. Number of establishments*, April, 1906, 4,186 and March 1901, 3,680. Hands employed —Males) 44*946 and 36,292; females, 11,413. and 10,5551 Totals, 56,359 and 46,847. Wages paid—To males, £3,979,593 and ,£2,972,193; to females, £478,026 and £330,454. Totals, £4,457,619 and £3,302,647. ' Horse-power, 60,335 and 39,113. Total approximate value of land, £3,264,b62 and £1,980,428. Total approximate value of buildings, £3,851,902 and £2,575,679. Total approximate value of machinery and plant, £5,392.522 and £3,852,457. Totals, £12,509,286 and £8,408,564 (♦Omitting Government railway workshops and Government Printing Office). Under the heading '"Hands Employed" the increase was from 46,847 in 1900 to 56,359 in 1905, or at the rate of over 20 per cent, in five years. This increase, it will be observed, is mainly on the male side. The returns show a decrease of females employed in clothing, and boot and shoe factories, besides woollen mills, match-making, and a " few others, which the'net increase in ithis sex down' to 8 per cent. The wages paid in the factories or industrial works dealt with in the census returns were returned for 1905 at £4,457,619, and for 1900 at £3,302,647, the increase on the total sum being at the rate of 35 per cent. The average amount of wages paid to male hands in 1905 was £BB 10s lid, and £Bl 17s lid in 1900. For females, £41,17s Bd, against £3l 6s 2rl in IyOO. Tested in this way, the wage for both would seem to have increased substantially. It must be . remembered that these are not adult wages., but those of persons of all . ages, male and female .distinctly. Value of Manufactures or Produce (output).—Value of all manufactures or produce (including repairs), 1905, £23,444,235, and 1900, £17,853,133. This is at the rate of 31.31 per cent, for the quinquennium, a very satisfactory rate of progress taking all = the manufactories and works collectively. The development is analysed in the following statement. The factories or works in connection with our great primary industries (agricultural, pastoral, timber and flax) include the greater part of the money:— / Principal Increase— Census, 1906. —Meat freezing and preserving works, with boiling down, £1,093,654; butter and cheese factories, £1,046,489; sawmills, sash and door factories, £860,077;, grain mills, £375,802; printing and bookbinding establishments (not Government) £363,542; flax mills, *354,316; gasworks, £96,353; ham and bacon curing establishments,£94,373; brick, Hie and potteryworks, £94,320; furniture and cabinet-making, £87,161; coachbuilding and painting works, £78,741; wpodware and turnery factories, £72,673; lime and cement works, £62,533; agricultural and implement factories, £61,647; electric lighting works, £58,796; sugarboiling and confectionery works, £50,055; fruit preserving and jam making, £39,940; woollen mills, £37,966; aerated water factories, £37,750; hosiery factories, £36,323. The addition of the figures for the total value of manufactures is not absolutely justified to the fullest extent of the amount shown (23J million pounds sterling), but the degree of repetition of value is not so great as to prevent the total given being of ' great help in judging of development. No doubt the above amount is over the fact, because, for instance, some of the butter made is included in returns for meat freezing establishments, as well as in the butter factory returns; timber cut is value under sawmilling, and some again in the furniture-making line. Also, leather is value in the tanning returns, and some part of it again in the boot and saddlery items. A certain amount of duplication is unavoidable. This is admitted in the accounts of industrial statistics of the United States of America and elsewhere. The tota' increase in value of manufactures for the period 1900-1905 (£5,591,102) is not so large as that stated previously for 1895-1900, when the sum was £7,600,000, but the latter period represented the rise • from a period of depression which is not the case in respect of the later period.