THE LABOUR REPORT.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11398, 8 October 1902, Page 6

THE LABOUR REPORT.

The opening paragraph in the ann_al~report of the Department of Labour g-ives the keynote to the rather biassed view Mr Tregear takes of labour matters generally. "The steadiness of employment, the ex- " tension of indu-tries and «he improvements " in regard to wages, hoars of work, over"time pay, etc., have made the $si_km *'of tihe workers generally more e_-dur_ble " than it has been for many years." The ou-nder knowing nothing of labour affairs in this colony might conclude from this •statement that -dtherto tfhe lot of the New Zealand worker had been one of unmitigated serfdom, a condueion whack the worker himself would be the first to resent. The condition of many of the colony's industries during tihe past official year was certainly most -ati-factory to the employees. The woollen mills and the building and allied trades __,ye been working continuously to the fullest extent. The engineering and iron trades have naturally felt the relaxation of tho mining boom, but have yet had a fairly good year all round, and many smaller industries have had' a prosperous season. Ab to the boo__i--ing trade, Mr Tregear -binks that neither employers nor men have much -reason for dissat_sf_ction. He agrees that-the trade has been adversely affected by machinery, but by madiinery in America and not in New Zealand, and he can even pluck comfort from the state of the import trade, in which he infers the American article does not figure so largely as it has done lately Auckland manufacturer-, it appears, have .taken a leaf out of their American rivals' book, and it is asserted that a good many

boots advertised as American are made in the northern city. The absence of so many of our young men in SoutJ-* Africa, j •aid the extensive publio works now going on in a number of towns, have kept up the demand for unskilled labour, and kept down the cry of the unemployed. In one significant passage Mr Tregear indicates Ifhat the Labour Depart-1 ment bos created a separate and special class of "unemployed." For some three or four yeaors tihe men who go to 6overx__£*nt work of any; kind have had to -regis-te-r with the Department of Labour. This class -Oi-os the majority of tlie men assisted by the Department, who have "almost entirely superseded the real 'un- " employed' of 1891. The latter are now "either in steady employment in towns, "or are .prosperous country settlers." The "new unemployed," it -appears, want Go v vernment work found for them, and will be satisfied with nothing else.

A branch of lafbour in this colony fto which increased attention is being compelled is that of domestic service, and on this point the remarks of Mrs Staveley, in charge of the women's branch of ihe Department of Labour in Wellington, are not without interest. The scarcity of "trained, capable domestic workers," she says, is remarkable; they can ask any wages in reason, and generally get what they ask. This applies, it may be said, to aQmost every town in the colony, if not to -aU, though wages are said to he ■higher in Wellington than elsewhere. Pew Wellington girls, it seems, go to service, which is the reason, _<> doubt, why so many from other parts of the colony find their way there. There is no local competition*; indeed, girls go there from Australia, even from Queensland, and occasionally a few arrive from the Old Country, aU finding places within a few days. Genera, servants are, of course, in greatest demand, and are hardest to get. They oomplain, Mrs Staveley says, of the long ihou-rsi end state -hat their day begins at 6 or 6.30 a.m., and enda perhaps at 8 or 9 p.m., or even later. (Mas Staveley _» of opinion that "if mi-tresses who employ "only-one maid gave help, and encouraged "them more, a better underata-iding would "result"—« remark which makes one wond_r if Mra Staveley does not know that nineteen out of twenty a-iatresses are alxeady -compelled, for the sake of con-fart, to give their domestics the help which s he urges them to render. The average. New Zealand -tousewlfe may keep & general servant if site can get one, but that privilege does not aiwdve hex from the necessity of doing a good deal of the work herself. The incompetence of the -average maidservant seems to be increasing as her wagea increase, and there is much reason to hope, with Mrs. Staveley, that in time to come instruction in domestic duties will be mad. a special feature in the training of young girls of all classes. At present the situation is unpleasant, and the remedy ia far to seek. The aim of most young women seems to be to get into a factory, where the work, if hard and unhealthy, ia rigidly limited to a certain number of hours. The life certainly offermore freedom and opportunity for _inu_em__t than domestio Bervice, but, taken altogether, it is not So well paid, and it affords no training fo_ domestic life. There may be caps of domestio servants being required to work toduly long hmrs, but, as a rule, nowadays a _oi_tress ia too glad to obtain the servicea of a really competent girl to • xun ■ any risk* of losing her by overworking her,-