H.—ll

2

rate of pay during their period of training, has also increased the work of the Department, and the careful inquiries needed to perform these new duties satisfactorily will continue to occupy much of the Inspectors' time. Since the establishment of the Department in 1891 the following have been assisted by the Men's Employment Bureaux in obtaining work : —

Domestic Workers and Others assisted by Women's Branches.

Auckland, 361 j Wellington, 727; Nelson, 146; Christchurch, 245; Dunedin, 213: total, 1,692. These figures show a decrease of 265 on last year's total. The reason for the continued decrease in the number of engagements of domestic servants is well known—viz., the impossibility of securing girls for this work in anything like sufficient' number to meet the great demand. The war has, of course, accentuated the«difficulty, but the problem is sure to remain after the war is over. A suggestion by way of solution is the establishment of communal kitchens in some of the chief centres of the Dominion, which would, if some enterprising business people would take the matter up, certainly prove advantageous to many classes of the community, as has been recently shown by the institution of communal kitchens in England as well as in other countries. It would surely be more economical in both money and time if the food required by, say, a hundred families residing in close proximity to one another were bought and prepared in one operation by means of the wholesale purchase of supplies instead of retail, of the use of one or two fires and other cooking appliances and utensils instead of a hundred of each of them, besides the saving in labour entailed, and so forth. This suggestion does not include communal dining-rooms, to which there would naturally be much objection. The cooked meals could be delivered in heat-retaining vessels. Many housewives would be enabled to carry out their housework without regular domestic help if even the daily dinner could be thus obtained, as the preparation of this meal and the cleaning-up afterwards'take up the time of one person for about three hours a, day—time which many mothers with two or three young children can ill afford. Many people probably do not realize that the total cost of a general servant, which is .£1 10s. per week or more, including her board and lodging, would pay 8 per cent, per annum on about ,£l,OOO, so that if a number of householders residing in one neighbourhood were to combine in such an undertaking by taking up a few shares each, the expenditure of the few pounds involved would soon repay the outlay. In these kitchens, too, a proper training in the art of cooking could be acquired. Surely a. scientific knowledge of this subject is nearly as important, in the interests of general health, as that required by such a profession as that of, saj', a chemist. The status of the employees would be raised, they would be employed under proper conditions, and the stigma attached to the name of " general servant " would (so far as they are concerned, at all events) be removed. Another interesting suggestion emanating from London that has recently been made is that, except in those cases where the housewife still wishes to employ her own servants (and is able to do so), the domestic workers in a city or town should be employed by a company or syndicate under proper wages and other conditions, to be fixed by a committee representing the employers and the servants. The company would then send the servants to the houses applying for such help by the hour, day, or week, as required, or to perform the particular work to be done, charging the householder for the services rendered. All instructions, complaints, c\a., would be made between the householder and the manager of the company. It is urged, in reply to the contention that the housewife would not have full control over her own housework, that so long as her requirements were not unreasonable they would always be given full attention by the management, who would, in fact, be able to exercise better discipline than is now the case.

Factories Aot. Contrary to the figures for the former two years, the following statement shows that there lias been it, slight increase in the number of factories and persons engaged therein during the past twelve months : —

Year. Total. Married. Single. Dependants. Private Work. Government Work. 1891-1917 (twenty-six years) 1917-18 118,468 2,952 41,881 I 992 I 76,587 1,960 152,961 3,675 54,082 2,372 64,386 580 Totals... 121,490 42,873 78,547 156,636 56,454 64,966

Year. Factories. Movement. Factory Workers. Movement. 1913-14 (before the war) 1914-15 1915-16 (since the war began) . . 1916-17 1917-18 13,469 13,937 13,214 12,455 12,4.85 91 (increase) 468 723 (decrease) 759 30 (increase) 87,517 88,812 83,011 .78,188 79,653 919 (increase). 1,295 5,801 (decrease). 4,823 1,465 (increase).