FACTORY RECORDS

Southland Times, Issue 19900, 19 June 1926, Page 12

FACTORY RECORDS

LAST YEAR’S PRODUCT. NEARLY EIGHTY-FOUR MILLIONS. Wellington, June 14. The secondary industries of the Dominion are making good progress. Their product last year, according to official figures collected by the Government Statistician, amounted to nearly £84,000,000, and they paid in wages £13,500,000. The wages bill was £1,420,000 in excess of that of. the previous year and the average wage paid to male employees went up 6 per cent during the period, though the average female wage showed a slight decrease. The productive employees in secondary industries, as distinct from those employed on the administrative and distributive side, number 67,945, an increase of 3815, half of which is due to the inclusion for the first time of traffic employees of electric tramways. The cost of material operated on in the factories totalled over £52,000,000. It is noticeable that mechanical power is coming more into factory operations in New Zealand. The increased horse-power last year was 37,495, making the total power 288,406. The handicap to factory industry of lack of cheap power is fast disappearing from New Zealand with the development of hydro-electric resources; therefore it is not surprising that electric power accounted for over one-third of the increase, with 13,946 horse-power, while steam showed an increase of 12,953, water-power 11,092, and oil 839. Power used by New Zealand factories has increased by 97 per cent in nine years, and the average horse-power per productive worker has shown a rise from 0.8 horsepower in 1900 to five times that figure today. Owing to fluctuations in value of commodities it is difficult to make fair comparisons between outputs per employee at various periods, but the Statistician, with this qualification, assesses the value of output per £lOO of wages showing that in 1900 it amounted to £541, that during the peak of high prices in 1916 it rose to £683, and last year was £620. DEVELOPING INDUSTRIES. Examining the details of increases in numbers of employees the Govenment Statistician states that printing with 906 and sawmilling 430 showed the largest additions, the balance being evenly distributed between biscuits and confectionery 74, meat freezing 215, brick, tile and pottery 38, concrete block making 88, motor and cycle engineering 290, furniture making 123, flax milling 274. Flax milling had, says the report, recovered from its depression, the total number of employees, 1228, being larger than at any of the three preceding periods. In several cases decreases in the number of productive employees were noted, the principal industries suffering in that respect being clothing, gas-making and woollen milling. A considerable quantity of low-grade and cheap clothing was imported during the year ended March, 1925, which caused a period of depression in the woollen milling and clothing trades. The growing use of electricity has no doubt been responsible for the falling away of the gas-manufactur-ing industry. Summing up the position in regard to employees of secondary industries, the report states that last year was a record even exceeding the boom times of 1920,