LABOUR DEPARTMENT STATISTICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 30

LABOUR DEPARTMENT STATISTICS.

With reference to a complaint made by the Dunedin Trades and Labour Council as to the manner in which information is obtained for tho Labour Departments report, Mr E. Tregear, chief of tho Labour Department, points out that at the beginning of each year factory owners have, under tiie Factory Act, to send in a return to the Labour Department stating the ages of and the wages paid to their employees. From this information alone the Department is able to compile its annual repoi t, although it is suggested by some of tho labour organisations that if such reports were furnished by the employees the statements as to wages paid would bo very different. However that may be, the Labour Department can only accept what is given them, and until it is put in a better position by Act of Parliament has no power to compel information from anyone, and consequently in order to make lip its report has to rely on the information furnished under the Factory Act. The only way out of the

difficulty is for tho Parliament to pass a measure empowering them to collect information, and by that means they would bo able to obtain reliable statistics. With regard to the monthly reports, Mr Tregear says that perhaps there may be some instances in which tradesmen may object to it being said their trade was in a satisfactory condition, but the agents who collect the information are in every case Government officers, and liavo no reason for falsifying their reports, and consequently that is the best information that can be obtained.