THE ECONOMIC POSITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 176, 26 June 1926, Page 8

THE ECONOMIC POSITION.

New 'South Wales and Victoria are the principal manufacturing States in the Commonwealth. With a 44-hour working week in the one State and a 48-liour week in the other, the latter has a big pull over its sister State. A Sydney paper places in striking contrast the actual annual increases in the number of employees in the secondary industries in each State, which fairly conclusively demonstrate the fact that the extra four hours makes an appreciable difference in the opportunities for employment. The figures in each case give the increases in the number of employees over the previous year:— N.S.

It will be seen from these figures that, while in the two years immediately proceeding the introduction of the 44-hour week (that is 1918-19 and 1919-20) the number of employees in the secondary industries in New South Wales increased by 23,900, the similar increase in Victoria was only 18,279. During the two years that the 44-hour week was in operation the increases in the Mother State only amounted to 3422, whereas in Victoria the number was 8354. With the return to the 48-hour week in 1922-23, the New South Wales figures were again below the Victorian increase, the change having only been made late in the year. Rut in 1923-24, still under the operation of the. 48-hour week, the New South Wales secondary industries provided employment for an additional 7,408 hands, the Victorian increase being only 3,537 —less than half that number. In 1919-20, New South Wales was employing 7,932 more factory-hands than Victoria, but, as a result of the 44-liour week, in 1922-23 the position was reversed and the Mother State had actually 360 fewer employees than Victoria, although the population had increased by some 600,000. A still more significant fact is apparent in the wages payments, which, during the two years of 44 hours in New South Wales and 48 hours in Victoria (from 1920-21 to 1922-23) increased by £l6 7s 8d per annum in Victoria and only £2 Is in New South Wales. The Sydney paper from which we quote these figures, says that “in 1922-23, when the fullest effects of the 44-hour week were felt, the average wage in New South Wales fell by £1 15s 6d per annum, while in Victoria it rose by £2 19s per annum.” A further proof of the greater prosperity of the workers in the Southern State is seen in the Savings Bank returns. In the two years the number of depositors increased by 33 per 1000 in New South Wales and by 41 per 1000 in Victoria, while the increase in deposits per head of the population was £2 Is 6d in New South Wales and £3 0s 4d in Victoria. The figures speak for themselves.

Year W ales Victoria 1918-19 7,037 4,106 1919-20 16,863 14,173 1920-21 557 4,221 1921-22 3,865 4,133 1922-23 3,390 7,749 1923-24 7,408 3,537