THE YEAR-BOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 19 December 1922, Page 4

THE YEAR-BOOK.

Our old friend, the "New Zealand Official Year-Book," makes an early appearance this year and comes in fuller shape. The 1020 edition was the smallest ever iussued, and did not appear until February. 1921. The 1921 volume was some two hundred pages larger, >but did not appear till -March ,of 'this year. The new volume for 1023 is some eighty pages larger and .appears before cne Dvgmning m imyear. This is as it should .be, and we hope that in future this indispensable publication will 'be issued with similar .promptitude. The Government Statistician is to 'be congratulated on the amount of information lie has packed into the volume, and the way he has arranged it. We note, among new features, an outline of the history of primary education in New Zealand, which gives some interesting information about provincial systems in the days 'before Bowen's Education Bill, .amended drastically 'by the Liberals. became law ill 1877 and laid the foundation of our present system of free, .secular and compulsory education. "There m no doubt,'' says the writer. "that the initial attempts in propounding a scheme of education were eminently more successful in Ota go than in any other province," which is what one would expect. Other special leatures are a full synopsis of the statutory rating powers of local authorities. a lengthy summary of totalizator law, and extracts from the report of Sir John Salmond on the work of the Washington Conference. W'c note with satisfaction that the list of principal events in the Dominion's history from the discovery by Tasman has been reinserted and brought up to date—it has ibecn a very useful feature of the Year-Book-and that the bibliography has .been extended.

We cannot attempt to do more than draw attention to a few of the features of this most valuable compilation. The information about trade, production, social conditions, finance, and legislation is full and accessible, and appendices bring statistics up to as late as the end of September. The sections on prices and wages will be read with as keen and wide an interest as any. Officially compiled index numbers of wages are published for the first time, fourteen industrial groups being treated. Several pages are devoted to average wages paid in the four principal industrial districts between 190P and 1022, a compilation that must be valuable to union secretaries and students of economics and sociology. A graph shows the trend of nominal wages, retail prices of food, and effective wages! The Statistics Office has devoted sonic attention to rents, which seem to cause more dissatisfaction than anyother item in the cost of living. According to this the average rent for a fourroomed house in Auckland in February, 1921, was 13/BA, of a five-roomed house 18/7, of a six-roomed house 22/"3, and of a seven-roomed house 27/9. The Wellington and Christchurch rates were higher, and the Dunedin lower. Since the Arbitration Court uses these figures in framing its awards they are' very important. The Statistics Office explains that the index numbers ill respect to rents "indicate the movement in the average rentals of a large number of houses, and that they do not purport to convey any statement as to the price at which housing accommodation can be obtained from time to time." We presume that this applies also to the figures we have quoted. Since there is a good deal of dissatisfaction among wageearners in this matter, it being felt that the figures accepted by the Court are too low, a fuller explanation of the whole subject would be welcome. These masses of data on wages and prices show that the Statistics Office is steadily increasing the scope of its work. The Year Book may be cordially recommended to all students of.polities and economics. The price, 7/6, is rather formidable, but when the size of the book and the value of the contents are considered it~is by no means excessive.