LABOUR LAWS AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 23 December 1899, Page 4

LABOUR LAWS AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

In the discussion recemtly raised as to the effect of our recent Labour laws upon industrial progress it has been contended that the number of hands employed in the factories of the colony has increased from 20,456 in 1892 to 45,305 in 1899, the figures being those compiled by the Labour Department from the returns made under the Factories Act. These. figures are capable of easy explanation. The first Factories Act was passed in 1891 ; the returns were called for and made in 1892, and showed 20,456 as the number of hands employed. Then the various inspectors went their rounds, and next year the figures jumped up to 25,022, an increase of over 4500. Next year, 1894, the figure 3 moved up to only 25,851. Clearly something had to be done, so a new Act was passed, and tho definition of a factory was altered from "a place in whioh three or moro persons are engaged" to "a place where two or more persons, otc." The result- was that in 1895 the figures again showed an increase of 4000. Apparently Ministers were Inot content Avith this, so clause 23 of the 1894 Act enacted that textilo -roods given out on piece work to bo done, in a private dwelling could rot be exposed for sale unjess each arliclo boro a printed label at least two inches square giving tho name of the mukor, the street, and the number of the housu who.ro it was made, and a variety of other particulars. As shopkeepers naturally objected to having all' this rigmarole on their goods, the result was that ovcry woman vho took shirts or such like goods to nu>ko up at home and so help to k 1 ep tho fnmilv.pob boiling had to either forugo the w ovk or rockier her house n^ a factory. So nmcJi for (lie increase in the number of v rakurs in fucloriei. IJut in commerce the chiof desidera-imn Uto pp t u\, ut the Iruo facts, whether tlu»y bo utipalu'ablo or otherwise. A merchant who fnils lo keep proper books may live in a fool'a paradise for a 1 time, but that |A\ill not Ntuve oil the evil day -when it fomoM, So with v nation : it mny be dcl lutied fov-tt tirno. but iv tho end the truth

must como out, and it is belter far that a disagreeable truth should be faced and grappled with than that the facts be glossed over in the hope that something may turn up to right matters. And how are the facts in this case to be got at? Not, surely, from a tablo of workers swelled in the manner indicated, but rather from tho output of the factories. For an "enquiry of 'this sort no surer basis can be got than this. Fortunately tho figures are available in the Census returns of the Registrar-General's Department. As these returns can, from the nature of the case, be made only at intervals of five years, we can carry the comparison no further than 1895. But tho figures are quite enough to show the trend of affaire to that date : — Clnss of Total Value of Products? Industry. 1895. . 1890. 1885. Meat — Freezing, preserving, and bolllng-down ...£1 652,275 £1,491,659 £543,878 Tanning, fellmongeiiug, and wool- , scouring 1,237,252 1.026,349 634,915 Buttor and cheese factories 501,274 150,057 43,094 £3,393,801 £2,641,965 £1,2*1,887 Increase during fire yeavß of abovo manufactures ... £748,636 £1,420,078 Increase of all other manufactures in the same periods 26,687 642,380 Total increase each quinquennium . . . £775,523 £2,002,458 The figures show that during the five years 1885-90 the increase of our output was £2,062,458 , the increase for tho next period (1890-95) was £775,5^3, or only 37 per cent, of the previous increase. But the analysis of the total increase is more startling still. It discloses that while the increase m the classes of industries named abovo (which have beeh picked out as being directly dependent upon work done on the lands of the colony) was for the,, period 1885-90 £1,420,078, the increase for the next term, 1890-95, was £748,836, or only 52 per cent, of the previous increase. Now, it may be argued that in regard to the products of the land exported during the period 1890-95 the volume was greater and the prices relatively less, but this argument clearly cannot be made to apply to general manufactures. The respective increases of these were — 188590, £642,380, and 1890-95, £26,687, only 4 per cent, of the previous increase. This last class includes such industries as the making of boots, clothes, furniture, glassware, machinery, and all others of the same nature, and it is most deplorable to see the exceeding slow progress of these manufactures. Whether this arrest is due to the imposition of the Labour laws of the present Government no one can positively affirm, but in the face of the above figures can anyone assert that the Labour laws have helped the development of the manufacturing industries of New Zealand?