DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10422, 26 July 1895, Page 4

DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR.

ANNUAL REPORT,

(Fkoh Qua Own Corebsponbent.)

".■■-.. _ . -i Wellington, July 25. The Minister, for Labour yesterday laid upon the '.table of the HouEe the fourth annual report of Mr Edward Tregear, secretary of the Department of Labour. The report is a weli-arranged and most, comprehensive ore, dealing very fully wiuh the transactions of the department from the Ist April 1894; to 31st March of this year, lhe labour question is the first matter referred to in the report. The general depression of trade all over the world, it state), had not passed by without affeofciDg considerably fche position of the working mea and women of New Zealand. The lo* prices of most colonial products, only in. part balanced by the increased output, has caused an unusual depression in the labour market aud a corresponding difficulty in finding employment in New Zealand. The unskilled labourers consisted of two c!ass?s— the floating, and.tha permanent. The permanent labourers were settlers who, while cultivating their holdings or perhaps only their gardens, were in the : country grouped in villages or near stations. These provided the general agricultural aud pastoral labour, and wera to be rehed upon in case any of their richer neighbours wished to employ them. In town these mea were householders, usually residiog in the suburbs, and there they carried on tha occupations which the requirements of the cities demandfid. This year, however, the difficalty of providing fdr the other class, the fioatiug or unstable bodies of-, workmen, had been augmented by the addition to (heir numbers of many settlers and others hitherto belonging to the permanent labourers. These, under pressure of the scarcity of money, had. recruited the ranks of the wanderers, and'helped; to swell the number of the unemployed." The skilled 'trades had also contributed their quota—boilermaker?, painters, printers, &c.—stepping down into fchss ranks of untrained labour for the sake of employment on road works or iri railway construction. Mr Tregear was glad to be able to report, however, that, with the'new financial year, the tide of business had again commenced to flow, and that probably the . depression was over. It had been found necessary on account of the number of mea .out .of employment to put the co-operative labourers at public'wovks on threequarter time. This was one of those temporary economies sometimes forced on by pressure of circumstances when.ths money to bes spent was limited by vote and "the number of applicants was; in excess. A request had besn made to Ministers., that, the-same principle should be applied to skilled workmen such as carpenters, painters, and others employed on Government buildings, &c.', but there were considerable objections to this, not the least of which would be the tendency, to lower the rate of wages. It would be better if carpenters and others getting 8s or 10s a day for every working day in a week should voluntarily f et a&idea sum per day towards a fund for the relief of those out of work in their own trade than that they should suffer the general loweriag of wages. Many complaints had been made during the year as to the manner.m which working men had been recsivedj when .seeking :work, by landholders in the country districts, and there had been no lack of accusations from all parts of tbe country as to hands being discharged unnecessarily: in order to embarrass the department in its efforts to provide employment. The expression, " Go and get woik from the Government, you put in,"Mr Tregear "was afraid, had been too frequently made use of • but the phrase wag perhaps more often tbe eipre3sion of momentary irritation than of real feeling, and the pecuniary position of employers had been in such a depressed state that they had in some cases not been able to find funds to make improvements or carry on necessary work, much lees to txer-r cisc a large" and indiscriminate hospitality. These large landholders should remember, however, that by the fluctuating nature of the work they offered they had created a class of wandering labourers, without whose assistance st harvest and other times they would be placsd in a very awkward; position. Therefore, the necessities and poverty of such workmen should meet with; at '. "feast civil treatment. The. department duting the year had granted assistance to 3030 men having 8883 persons dependent upon them. Of the-men'assisted 2007 were married, and 1023 were singln. Of these, 2130 were sent to public ana 894- to private employment. Some wera assisted by means of passes to places were work was plentiful. The number assisted since the establishment of the department in June 1891 was as follows :—June, 1391 to 31st March 1892. 2593 man and 4-729 dependents; 'Ist April 1892 to 31st March 1893. 3874 men and 7802 dependents ; Ist April 1893 to 31st March 1894,3371 men and 8002 dependants ; Ist April 1894 to 31st March 1895, 3030 men and 8883 dependents; tolal men, 12,868; total dependents, 20,416 ;—total, 42,284 persons.

FACTORIES, fi* The number of persons working under the Factories Acb was 29,879, divided iato 22,324 men and 7555 women. These numbers show an increase of 4023 on thpae of last year, the differesco being mainly caused by the wider gtasp of the new act in including as Factories all places wherein two persons are working ah a handicraft. The prior act made three persons the minimum for. factory employment. The general depression1 of trade affected the factory workers seriously last year. Many establishments put their'hands on half or threequarter \ time, and eoiiaii had to shut down altogether. Towards thfe beginuing of 1895 a reaction set in, and the general tone of business was undoubtedly better than it was a few months ago. Many factories were again working full time, and seme had largu orders ia hand for exeeufcioa. The, prevention of child labour provided in the1 act was a matter in which every colonist should take a pride.

SHOPS AND SHOP ASSISTANTS ACT 1894-. This act had not been fouad to bs a measure eaey of Its provisions had canssd litigation, especially in those localities where party, feeling intfiiisified commercial disinclination to comply with the law. Over the greater part of the colony the act had worked fairly well, and''the" slight disturbance of the surface of things caused by every new departuro subsided into a contented aud acquiescent adoption of ttie weekly half-holiday, not oaly as a necessary bat as an advantageous matter. In a few placc-s, such as Gisbome, Grey town, and especially Auckland, the day gazetted was objected to by many of the shopkeepers, who cotisWered their business interfered with by the Saturday afternoon closing. Serious and protracted litigation had ensued on points of this act, and he (Mr Tregear) thought that an amending statute should take its place. The subjects most requiring attention he then proceeds to deal -with; They were: (1) The exemptions. In his opinion the day should be observed, in respect to closing, as a Sunday. (2) In country towns offices should close on the same day as the shops.' (3) Taeinterprttitioa of " shop" ehonld be made more clear, and should define indisputably whethor a wife over 18 years of age m*y be her husband's assistant in an exempted shop. (fi) The " January next" phraae should be made more clear; (5) the fixing of the day for the halfhoiidsy; (6) a mote cle&r definition of the occupation of tradesmen' who sell different classes of goods on the same premises. There are 6000 shop assistants in New Zealand, and Mr Tregear suggests that employers should bs required bo furnish, particular* of their assistants just as factory occupiers do under the sister act.

I.ABOTJE DEPARTMENT BILL. . Mr Tregeai- urges the importance of passing a bill giving the department salutary power to gather in statistics Mmiiar to those which make the work of census collectors effective. The figures to be obtained by a reliable coudensatioa of industrial statistics would give a_ basis upon which: a tariff commission could rely; and without such basis of information as to the Co3t: of raw material, the cost of production, the rate of wages, &c in New Zealand, the incidence of tariff legislation would continue to be mere guesswork, or at best but aa approximation to tbe certainty necessary for the real welfare of the colony.THE UNEMPLOYED.

The unemployed question is dealt with at length. Ascertaining the number of unemployed, the report states, i 3 merely guesswork for it fluctuated. Men of all classes were included in the ranks of this body, but the majority of those who applied to the Gove-n----ment for work during the year were of the true worker class and needed ■ employment sorely ' Those.employed had done good work for the colony, and m many case? under difficulties which included unaccustomed varieties of labour. On the whole their couduut had be°n excellent. The" money earned was never more than the living wage—not a starvation cr minimum wage, but, sufficient to enable a man to maintain a healthy and huraan home As to the best means of assisting the un employed, the department had mauv ama " teur advisers. The half-time system adonted oy the Gwermaent was, however, 'the mos. helpful and statesmanlike proresdin? yet taken to assist the unskilled labourer It gave good ground for hope thai; the prod-c ng power of the colony may be greatly in creased and it would be of beneQt'in .^ the wandering okrasufc induced in the workinS men of late of moving off because do employ" menb was procurable near home. Much a' s i4 aaeehad been given under the half-time J4 tarn A notable instasce of the success of the system W « B tne Batarfactory settlement of abourws from Chn.teWh on the Hautepu block Ths «ep Uken by the mnnieioaHtie. ta providing work for tbeir unemployed citizens dunngthe Timter months is roferroi) to a» both patnotie «na profiUole ■ Ifc was only, just that those who had control of local /ovmummtt should attempt to grapple with di^sTnd not throw ib entoroiy on ths central Governmeet.

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