SEO HI AGE OF LABOUR.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14583, 6 February 1913, Page 3

SEO HI AGE OF LABOUR.

DEPARTMENTAL ENQUIRY

Mr J. W. Collins, of tho Department of Labour, who has been instructed to make enquiries regarding tho shortage of labour in tho manufacturing industries of the Dominion, arrived from Wellington yesterday, for the purpose of making investigations into the matter in Christchurch.

With regard to his enquiries in Christchurch, Mr Collins told a reporter that ho would be guided largely by the advice of tho local Inspector of Factories and Awards, Mr W. H. Haggcr, as to the factories ho ought to visit. In all, ho would probably visit about 150 factories in Christchurch, though it was possible that ho would not require to visit all tho factories in any particular trade. Ho might find on going to two or three representative factories that there was a shortage of labour in that particular trade, in which case tho necessity for visiting tho other factories in the same trade would bo removed. He will also see tho secretaries of tho unions connected with tho different manufacturing industries, and obtain their views on the question of tho shortage of labour, and these ho will forward with his report. The enquiry being conducted by Mr Collins is restricted to the- manufacturing industries. A special enquiry- is being made by officers of the Immigration into the question of the shortage of farm labour in the Dominion. . . Mr Collins expects to be in Christchurch for a week or so, and at the conclusion of his enquiries in the city he will visit some of the other centres in the provincial district, and then take up the enquiry in Dunedin.