CHANGING TIMES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21217, 13 September 1940, Page 6

CHANGING TIMES

NATIONAL DEBT GROWS WAGES AND HOURS IN 1914 CRIME DIMINISHES At the end of the financial year, March 31, 1939, New Zealand owed, cn its national debt, a net figure a head of population of £56 14s 3d; at the end of March, 1939, 50 years later, the figure had risen to £lB6 17s. In that time the population had increased from 652,128 to 1,624,714. This is one of many interesting comparisons given in the annual statistical report issued by the Census ancl Statistics Department. The figures generally covered by the report deal only with years up to 1938 and therefore are not new, but there are some details of the following year which throw significant light on the development of the country. Of the four cities, Christchurch remains the cheapest in which to live. In 1938, house-rents averaged out at a lower figure than Wellington, Dunedin or Auckland; the fuel and light index numbers were higher than in Wellington or Dunedin, but when compared with 1914, 20s would go further in Christchurch in 1938 than in Wellington, Dunedin or Auckland, Dunedin reaching the costliest figure Comparative Wages In 1914, the average minimum weekly rate of a quarryman (to select one trade from a list of more than 100), was 52s 8d; in 1939 the rate was 94s 2d. A journeyman baker received 55s a week in 1914; in 1939 he received 115 s. For other trades the figures are: Butcher (first shopmen), 72s 6d to 123 s 2d in 1939; slaughterman, from 27s 6d for 100 sheep to 455; spinners in woollen mills, 51s to 103 s 4d; general hands, 26s 4d to 455. In 1914 hotel workers averaged, a full week, 65 hours of work; in 1939, the average was 40. Restaurant workers in 1914 worked 611 hours and in 1939, 44; waterside workers worked 44 in 1914, and now average 40, while butcher’s shopmen have dropped from 56 to 44. In 1938-39, 29,809,454 paid for admission to cinema theatres in New Zealand, revenue from admissions reaching a total of £1,893,617. The total expenditure over all theatres amounted to £1,685,281. This included film-hire and salaries and wages. Lower Infant Mortality In 1888 the deaths in New Zealand of children under one year, per 1000 live births, numbered 70.68. In 50 years, to 1938, the figure had been reduced to 35.63. But the rate of live birth per 1000 of mean population fell from 31,22 in 1888 to 17.93 in 1938. This represented a slight increase on the six previous years, but against that the death rate per 1000 of mean population in 1938 was well above that for the last 18 years By the end of 1938 there were more university students, excluding thos< ■n agricultural colleges, than in an', yeai in the history of the Dominion In 1888 the figure was 662; in im it was 5219. But there were fewer children in public schools than in either 1936 or 1937. | Crime appears, from these figures I to be diminishing to a remarkable I degree in New Zealand. In 1938 ! ™ ere . fewer Prisoners in jail ! ' j '. than in an y year since 1905 and the percentage of prisoners ner 1000 of population had reached a new [low level, 0.48.