THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Evening Star, Issue 9776, 5 August 1895, Page 1

THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

The fourth annual report of the Department of Labor has been presented to Parliament, and, as usual, contains much information of value and interest. Mr Treoear, the secretary, is evidently a man of good sound common sense, having a thorough grasp of the subjects with which he deals in the report, and taking a broad view of the labor question, realising the difficulties in which it is involved. He is not, of course, responsible for the legislation which it is his duty to administer under his political chief, but ho is evidently anxious that there shall he as little friction as possible, and he speaks out his opinion very plainly where he deems amendment or modification of the law desirable.

In his introductory remarks Mr Treoeak observes that the depression of trade all over the world has considerably affected the position of working men and women. The low price of most colonial products was in some degree balanced by the greater output in many directions, but in some there was a falling off so serious as to affect greatly not only the income of employers, but their power of giving work to others. The unskilled laborers in New Zealand, lie states, consist of two classes—the floating and the permanent. The permanent are settlers in the country, who, cultivating a bit of ground, provide the general, agricultural, and pastoral labor, and are to be relied upon in case their richer neighbors wish to employ them. In town this class arc householders, usually residing in the suburbs, and there they carry on the occupation which the requirements demand. This last year, however, lie goes on to say, the difficulty of providing for the floating bodies of workmen has been augmented by the addition to their numbers of many settlers and others hitherto belonging to the permanent laborers. These, under pressure of the scarcity of money, have recruited the ranks of the wanderers and helped to swell the number of the unemployed. The skilled trades have also contributed their quota, stepping down into the ranks of untrained labor for the sake of employment on road works or in railway construction. Mr Tregear says that he is glad to report that “ with the new financial “ year the tide of business has again com- “ racnccd to flow, and that probably the “ depression is over. There are signs of a “steady though gentle upward tendency “in prices, and employment is not “so difficult to obtain as it was “ some months ago.” He has received, he says, many complaints from working men as to the manner in which they have been received, when seeking work, by landholders in country districts, and there have been accusations as to hands being discharged unnecessarily in order to embarrass the department in its efforts to provide employment. Mr Tregear, however, points out that the pecuniary position of employers has been such that they have, in some cases, not been able to find funds to make improvements or carry on necessary work. The department during the year lias, it is stated, granted assistance to 3,030 men, of whom 2,GOT were married. Of these, 2,13(3 were sent to public and 894 to private employment. The total number assisted since Juno, 1891, has been 12,8(>8. The provision of employment for women and girls lias quite recently been undertaken by the department. “ It was thought neither wise nor “just that the necessities of one-half of our “ population should be neglected, or that “ women - citizens of the Colony should “ not be provided with equal means of “ escaping destitution as their male rela- “ fives, so far as the resources of the “ (Government allow, '’ An office for this special work lias I icon opened in Wellington ; but if the effort proves successful it will be extended to the other centres of population. In regard to the establishment of labor colonies, which lias been so warmly advocated, Mr Tregear speaks favorably of the experimental State farm of 800 acres at Levin, on the Wellington and Manawatu railway line, which, he thinks, has favorably tested the capability of the department to manage an agricultural community at a distance. “ Little difficulty,” he says, “ has been found in governing the opera- “ tion from headquarters or in proving “that such establishments may bo set up “ in other places to national advantage.” ‘ In respect to the legislation of last year, Mr Tregear states that the Factories Act, 1894, which consolidated and amended the law relating to factories, has given almost universal satisfaction both to factory owners and employes. The Shops and Shop Assistants Act has not been found a “ measure easy of administration.”' Ho considers that the exemptions are the “real cause of soreness. If there are “ any exemptions based on the perishable “ nature of some goods, there should bo “ none turning on the employment of, or “ non-employment of, labor. ... If “ the closing" of shops on a half-holiday is “to meet the approval of the public, such “half-holiday should be observed in re- “ gard to closing precisely as a Sunday is “ observed at present.” We are unable to agree with the secretary of. the Labor Department upon this point. It would be a serious loss to confectioners, fishmongers, and fruiterers to be compelled absolutely to close their shops on the weekly half-holiday, and manifestly a great inconvenience to the public. Mr Tregear does not recommend the Government to arbitrarily fix Saturday for the half-holiday. “ Not only “would strong opposition bo roused, but it “ would be very disastrous to trade, at all “ events for a time." There are, he says, some (3,000 shop- assistants in New Zealand, but at present the department has no means of accurately ascertaining the exact number, the average age, the wages earned, or the proportion of each sex employed. He strongly urges the importance of giving the department statutory power to gather in statistics of all classes of labor and industry. The figures obtained by a reliable condensation of industrial statistics would, he says, “give a basis on which a Tariff' Commis- “ sion could rely, and without such basis “of information as to the cost of raw “material, the cost of production, the rate “of wages, the incidence of tariff legisla- “ tion will continue to be mere gucss“work, or at best but an approximation “ to the certainty necessary for the real “welfare of the Colony.” After recent experience we hardly think the Colony is particularly anxious for another Tariff' Commission, and we have a shrewd suspicion that if Mr Reeves should succeed in carrying his Bill givinglarge inquisitorial powers to the Labor Department the statistics would be used for very different purposes than those suggested by the secretary. Mr Tregbar discourses at some length

on the question of the “ unemployed.'’ There is no doubt, he thinks, that the majority of the men who have applied to the bureaus of the department for work during the past year have been of the “true worker class,” and needed employment sorely; “On the whole, theil* “conduct has been exceedingly good, “ and, though a few black sheep have now “ and then disgraced the flock, the “wasteful and uproarious workman was “ not invented by the co-operative system “ —he was well known years ago. ’ Ihe department, he says, has many amateur advisers on the subject of dealing with the unemployed. “Scarcely a mail arrives “ without the receipt of a letter propound- “ ing some theory as to the depression in “ the labor market, or some scheme- -on a, “ sheet of foolscap—for the regeneration of “ mankind. They vary from the thesis of “ the scientific person, who propounds that unemployed ditficulties “ are recurrent periodically, and. are “related to the duration of spots on “ the sun, to the proposition of the “ ‘ currency : enthusiast, who wishes all “men out of work to be engaged on “ Government printing presses turning out “bank notes, so producing wealth." None of these schemes, says Mr Tkf.oeaii, have so far suggested practical advantage, and there is no outlet for our surplus labor at present, except the temporary expedient of settling as many men as possible on the land ; nor is there any possible stimulant to our commerce “ except by sending “out acute agents to extend our trade “ and to let the people of other countries “ (notably the Malay Archipelago, China, “Japan, and India) know what produc- “ tions we can supply at a reasonable rate.” These agents had, however, better say nothing about the desire of the Government to prohibit any Asiatics from setting foot in the Colony 1