FACTORIES AS EVIDENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23157, 1 October 1938, Page 14

FACTORIES AS EVIDENCE

Claims made by Ministers and other Labour speakers about the increase in the number of factories established in the past three years have been challenged by Mr. H. 0. Veitch, National candidate for Wanganui. Mr. Veitch mentioned the figure 1125, the increase in the number of factories said to have occurred since the Labour Government came into office. The total, he said, included Chinese laundries, and other establishments not usually imagined when the word factory is used. The true position can be realised if the figures Labour speakers use are compared with those compiled by the Government Statistician. The claim for the Government is based on a return published in the 1938 report of the Labour Department. 'lt does show the increase Mr. Veitch cites, but the figures given cover all registrations, including "one man" factories, which the Statistician excludes from his returns. Thus Mr. Veitch's criticism is substantially based. But there is another point about the department's figures, explained in the report, but not quoted from election platforms. The registrations for each year are those existing in April, and the year listed ends on March 31. Consequently, where the Labour Department report gives 17,559 as the number of factories registered in 1937-38, it means that was the number in April, 1937. The latest figures Labour speakers can quote are 18 months old. In other words, the increase of 1125 factories took place between April, 1935, and April, 1937. The return, read' this way, also shows that between April, 1933, and April, 1935, there was an increase of 836 in the number of factories registered—all before the Labour Government came into power. The rise from depression levels in the number of real, factories and of employees had begun before Labour's advent, and has continued since—at least up to 1937.