MANUFACTURES EXPANDING.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14761, 3 September 1913, Page 2

MANUFACTURES EXPANDING.

■■•_.--.■ _+ _ •• ■ A WAGES RECORD. (BTECIAI, TO "THE PRESS.") WELLINGTON, September 2. The figures incorporated in tho Labour report presented to the. House to-day show that the manufactures of the Dominion, on the basis of wages paid and hands employed, ar© expanding satisfactorily. The report shows that the number of factories registered as at 31st March, 1913, totalled 13,375—an increase of 428 over the number in 1912. There wore 86,598 factory workers employed, being 7808 workers more than for tho year ending 31st March, 1911. (Tho tobal hands for the year 1912 was not ascertained.) The total wages paid in New Zealand factories was £6,713.855 for the year ending 31st March, 1912, as against £5,981,070 for the year 1909----1910. T>uring the interval of two years there had been a total net increase of £732,785 in the wages paid. All the manufacturing trades (showed a very r steady increase in wages paid, with the exception of tho leather-work-ing trades, light, heat, and power trades, and flaxmillins. ' No statistics were published in regard to the number of chops, employees therein, wages paid, etc., on account of tlie difficulty in obtaining reliable data. The Secretary of Labour mentioned that such statistics were not likely to be included in future, owing main'Jy to the frequent change of hands in shops and the overlapping of the trades. j Two hundred and seventeen cases ; were taken against shopkeepers for ! breaches of th c Act, compared with 293 during the previous year. The Department obtained 205 convictions and twelve cases were dismissed. 1 Under the various Labour enactments the sum of £1856 was collected for the year ending 31st March. IHI3. The women's employment branches of tlio Department assisted 2072 persons during the year, or 143 less than the previous year. The supply of labour afforded by oversea immigrants was. slightly better tran in previous years, but tho number oi servants is still vory far fchort of the -legitimate requirements of misI'tsses. The women's branches of the Donartment have since their establishment in 190S assisted 11.728 women nn<l £u-ls.