OUR MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1831, 10 April 1907, Page 1

OUR MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

FIGURES FOR 1906. Details of the industrial statistics furnished by the 1906 census are issued by the Registrar-General’s Department. In the appended comparative tables attention must be given to the fact that whereas, up till the time of the census of 1901, the term " factory ” was rather neld to mean an establishment where manufactures were carried on wholesale, where machinery was employed, and where several bands worked together; in the returns for 1901 and 1906, a “ factory ” has been interpreted to mean any concern, where two or more persons work together at making articles for disposal, wholesale or retail, and without reference to machinery being used or not. Thus these returns include certain industrial workers (and their production) where two or more are found together with manufactories to supply wholesale traders or making for export. But thr. attempt has been made to approximate the census results to those of the Labour Department, according to special diiection. The totals for tn. industries do not include mining, quarrying, and the fisheries, which aie dealt with sepa- - ately. Manufactories and Works, 1905 and 1901. April, March, 1906. 1901.

value of Land <£3,264,862 £1,980,428 Buildings ... £3,851,902 £2,575,679 Machinery and plant ... £5,392,522 £3,852,457 Government Railway Workshops and Government Printing Office. The average amount of wages paid to male hands in 1905 was £BB 10s lid,-and £Bl 17s lid in 1900. For females, £4t 17s Bd, against £3l 6s 2d in 1900. “ Tested in this way,” says the Registrar, " the wages for both would seem to have increased substantially. It. must be remembered that these are not adult wages, but those of persons of all ages, male and female distinctly.” The value ol all manufactures or produce increased from £17,853,133 in 1900 to £23,444,235 in 1905, or 31.31 per cent, for the quinquennium. The principaf increases were : £

Ship and boat-building yards... 20,761 The Registrar remarks that there is a certain amount of duplication in these figures; butter, for instance, being included in the returns for freezing works and butter factories. The total increase of manufactures for the period 1900-05 is less than the increase in the period 1895 1900, which was ,£7,600,000. The value of materials operated upon is estimated at £13,163,692. The Registrar says upon this point"Th© sum arrived at for the year 1905. is £13,163,692. The difference between this amount and the total value of all the manufacture and produce (with repairs) may be termed the' net value of the manufacture in a sense, and duplications on account of articles made in any one kind of manufactory becoming materials operated upon for another sort would be eliminated. But to arrive at any approximate notion of profit, £4,103,536 spent in wages ought further to be deducted, and also interest on £12,509,286 invested in knd, buildings, machinery, and plant,"

Number of establishments* Hands employed— 4,186 3,680 Males 44,946 36,292 Females 11,413 10,555 Wages paid— To males <£3,979,593 <£2,972,193 To Females ... <£478,026 £330,454 Horse-power Total approximate 60,335 39,113

Meat freezing and preserving works ... .. 1,093,654 Butter and cheese factories ... 1,046,489 Sawmills, sash and door factories 860,077 Grain mills 375,802 Printing and bookbinding establishments (not Government) 363,542 Flaxmills 354,316 Gasworks 96,353 I-Iam and bacon-curing establishments 94,373 Brick, tile, and pottery works 94,320 Furniture and cabinetmaking 87,161 Coachbuilding and painting works ... 78,741 Woodware and turnery factories 72,673 Lime and cement works 62,533 Agricultural implement factories 61,647 Electric lighting works 58,796 Sugar-boiling and confectionery works . 50,055 Fruit - preserving and jammaking 39,940 Woollen mills 37,966 Aerated water factories 37,750 Hosiery factories 36,323 Chemical works 30,556 Grass-seed dressing 28,789 Tinware factories 28,563 Biscuit factories 27,487 Bone mills and manure works 26,260