THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 193, 15 August 1911, Page 6

THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. THE INDUSTRIAL BAROMETER. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Doling the year ended March 31st last 7102 men were assisted to obtain work by the Labour Department, and of this number 4251 were sent to private employment, and 2851 to Government works, the total being 1404 less than during the previous year. In the 20 years that the Department has been in existence 34,984 men have been assisted to private work, and 49,797 have been sent to Government works. SOME STRIKING FIGURES. Mr. Lomas (secretary for Labour), in connection with many suggestions advanced that factory hands should b« brought from Britain to meet the dearth in the Dominion, says he has grave doubts whether there is much chance of getting them. In many'cases, he points out, skilled workers receive better pay in Great Britain than they do in New Zealand. To show the demand that has become chronic in this country for factory labour, and also showing that the check in industrial growth in the previous year was only temporary, it is stated that there were in March last 12,768 factories iti this country employing 78,790 hands, being an increase of 460 factories and 984 hands on the preceding year. The largest wages roll is possessed by Auckland, where 11,357 hands are employed. Christchurch comes next with 9.891, then Dunedin with 9,638, and Wellington with 7,562. DEARTH OF JUVENILE LABOUR. During the pa9t year there has been a 'further falling off in the supply of factor}' employees between the years of fourteen and twenty, the number now being 18,173, or a decrease of 787 during the year. Mr. Lomas endorses the opinion expressed by Mr. Tregear that, with a diminishing birth rate, and with limited immigration, there is little hope of meeting the great dearth in boy and girl labour. From this cause the textile factories have frequently to refuse locaf orders, while the biscuit and confectionery trade is also greatly affected in the busy seasons, although the pay and hours are, in the opinion of Mr. Lomas, very satisfactory. He puts the trouble down to the tendency of boys and girls to seek office work rather than factory employment. The same thing applies to the small number of apprentices offering in many of the trades, and the remedy can only be found when office wages sink to a lower level than factory wages. FACTORY ACCIDENTS.

Accidents in factories increased last year by 137 on the previous year, the numbers being 872 and 735 respectively. Of the casualties last year, 638 -weir classified as slight, 145 moderate, 77 serious and 12 fatal. The percentage of accidents to employees was low as compared with other countries, being 1 to 50, and 1 fatality to 6566 workers employed. DECREASE IX PROSECUTIONS.

Breeches of the Factories Act are on the decrease. According to the number of prosecutions for last year, there wero only 102 throughout the Dominion, as compared with 113 in the previous year. To show that the Department usually makes pretty sure of its case before proceeding, only 5 of the 102 failed. There wero at the end of March last 14.844 shops in the Dominion, employing 38,387 hands, the wage-sheet totalling nearly £2,000,000 for the year. There were 1020 more shops and 4218 more employees than in the previous year, and Auckland still leads the way. During the year the prosecutions under the Shops and Offices Act numbered 200, and convictions 186, being a slight increase on the previous year. JIASTER AND MAN. The past year has been one of comparative peace so far as concerns the Conciliation and Arbitration Court, says Mr. Lomas, only three cases of breaches of the strike and lock out provisions of the 'Act having occurred. The cost of Conciliation Councils for the year was £2897, being £335 more than in the previous year. The cost of the Arbitration Court was £3897, or £"428 less. The Court made 74 awards, while the Department took up 656 cases for the enforcement of awards, winning 534, the bulk of them being heard in the Magistrate's Court. In December, 1910, there were 118 employers' unions, with a membership of 4262, while there were 308 workers' unions, with a membership of 57,091, showing the same number of workers' unions as in the previous year, but an increase of membership amounting to 2572. The number of workers' compensation cases before the Arbitration Court wa? 21, being a decrease of 17. This was due to the number of settlements by arrangement. Mr. Lomas hopes that the compilation of industrial statistics obtained at the census will be completed in six months. The expenditure of the Labour Department for the year was £22,725.