LABOUR DEPARTMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22403, 27 April 1936, Page 10

LABOUR DEPARTMENT

Under the bill now before Parliament, the Labour Department will become one of the most important departments of State, its functions and responsibilities being much enlarged. Altogether it will be charged with the administration of 17 Acts and their miscellaneous amendments, including such important subjects as apprenticeship, wages protection, factories, shops and offices, workers' compensation, conciliation and arbitration, weights* and measures and unemployment. This last represents a formidable problem in itself, involving among other things the heavy financial responsibility for the expenditure of an annual fund of some £4,000,000. It is not surprising to learn from the Minister of Labour that the reorganisation and increased staffing of his department as proposed in the bill will cost an additional £IO,OOO a year. Incidentally Mr. Armstrong is to be commended for offering Parliament, which in theory is trustee of the public purse, an estimate of the sum involved in his proposals. Too many schemes have recently been put forth by Ministers without any attempt to count the cost. In return for the extra money, Mr. Armstrong promises the country a revitalised department. Certainly it will have great need of efficiency and alertness in administering the large output of new legislation now before Parliament or in prospect. There is a danger that the department may be swamped by its many cares, even although the Minister has provided for the delegation of authority. It might have been better administrative policy to have deferred taking over unemployment, with its daily demands for thought and action. Generally, however, the strengthening of the department should be welcomed, as making for the more uniform and therefore fairer enforcement of labour laws. No good employer will have any quarrel with such a result. At the same time the department's inspectorate will have to go about its work with discretion if business and industry are not to be seriously hampered by official requirements and regulation*.