THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 15124, 13 October 1909, Page 4

THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

PROGRESS DESPITE DEPRESSION. [Fno&i Our G'oiißEsroxwm'.J WELLINGTON. October 12. In the eighteenth annual report ol the Department of Labour reference is naturally made to tho recont depression. " In. some localities, says tho report, " the pressure of unemployment has not heeii noticeable. Christchurch felt the depression less than any other of the cities, and Auckland felt some prefigure from unskilled labour oni the completion of the Main Trunk KailFINDIN6 WORK. During the year the number of workers on roads and railways rose from 6000 to 10,000. Through the medium of the employment bureaux 6201 men were given employment by the Public Works Department as compared with 3328 in the previous year. The number of men for whom these bureaux found work has also greatly increased as compared with previous vears. The report states that "to find private work for 4190 men on a falling market has demanded both zeal and intelligence." Of 1679 assisted immigrants from Britain the majority were sent to farming work. Some of these immigrants were tradesmen, who accentuated the over-supply in tho local labour market. FACTORY HANDS. The numbor of factories in tho dominion (12,040) shows an increase of 454 for the year. Tho number of factory workers, however, has only increased from 78,625 last year to 78,818 this year. One of the causes for this 6 et-back to the increase in the number of workers is the difficulty of procuring young people as beginners in the clothing and food trades. In some manufactures would have been greatly crippled by the industrial shortage of New Zealand-born boys and girls but for tho arrival of thousands of immigrant families, the younger members of which took factory employment. Tho explanation of the large increase in the number of factories as compared with the number of hands is that workers discharged on account, of slackening trade have in many cases started small factories on their own account. Tho paid in New Zealand factories last year totalled £5.710,226. or an increase of £391,207 over those paid the previous year. The food, wood-work-ing, iron "and clothing trad are the biggest employers of factory labour. Taking tho chief cities, Auckland disbursed" £921,314 among. 11,369 employees; Wellington, £784.177 among 8263; Christchurch, £860.702 among 10,284; and Dunedin. £723,962 among 9643 employees. In the last live years there has been a reduction of about 6 per cent in the proportion of factory employees under twenty-one years of age' to those over that age. The average wage paid to factory employees last year was £B4 18s. During the- year 803 accidents occurred in factories, of which 4 were fatal. 13 serious, 216 moderate and 570 plight. The average wos one fatal accident to every 19.712 workers. There were 141 convictions for breaches of tho Factories Act. SHOP WORKERS' WAGES.

Of the four centres, Auckland leads in the number of persons engaged in shops and offices, and tho wages paid, tho figures being 4240 and £253,508, Christchurch comes next with 3898 and £228,764, Wellington 3537 and £225,640, and Dunedin 3393 and £192,780. Tho average wage of a shop assistant has increased from £B2 10s to £B6 lis 6d during tho year. It differs in the various centres, Wellington being £9B 18s sd. Christchurch £92 3s 4d. Dunedin £BB lis lid, and Auckland £B3 18s lOd. 'There are fewer youths and fewer girls, at work in Wellington than in the other centres. There are 12,689 shops in New Zealand, in which 34,119 persons are engaged of whom 20.701 are assistants. ARBITRATION The report, in noting the appointment of Conciliation ' Commissioners, states that a better spirit is becoming apparent on the parts oi employer and employed, there being iess disposition to press the letter of an award or agreement to excess. the year was free from any serious trouble terminating in a strike or lock-out. The Conciliation Boards cost £14.73 12s 3d and the Arbitration Court (exclusive of salaries to tho amount of £2800) ccot £2-536 16s 7d. Tho report contains a table showing a comparison between tho minimum rates under awards nnd the actual rates paid, which, it is claimed, shows that as far as factories are concerned Arbitration Court Awards have not lowered tho average wage or injured the high rates for especially good workers. Thus in tho various cities in the bootmaking trade the percentage of workers receiving over the minimum wage stipulated in the award is: Auckland 66 per cent, Wellington 85* per cent, Christchurch 66 per cent and Dunedin 50 per cent. UNIONS. During the year employers' unions increased by one, and in membership by 288. Workers' unions increased by 15, and in membership by 3733. The membership of workers' unions has increased by 19,000 in tour years. BREACHES OF AWARD. The number of cases of breaches of award taken by tho Department to the j Arbitration Court was 552 as against. 754 cases tho previous year, and the i Department won 463 of them. The in- ; spectors recovered £1561 oa 7d for 311 workers, mostly back wages, overtime, j ' etc. | GENERAL. ; The report states that tho work dono has fully justified the institution of , bi.nnch offices to facilitate the obtaining ■ of employment by women. A table in the report gives the averago number of children dependent on each married man assisted to employment by the Department for each year since 18:)2. In that year the average of dependent children was .'i.4*< per man; last year it was 1.77. ''These iigures," says tho report. " appear to show that the decline in the birth-rate is not by any means confined to those classes sometimes referred to as being enervated bv injury.''