WORK OF LABOUR OFFICE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1930, Page 3

WORK OF LABOUR OFFICE

INCREASE IN NEW PLYMOUTH. FACTORIES AND PETROL PUMPS. In the course of his reply to farewell tributes paid him at the meeting of the New Plymouth Unemployment and Relief Committee yesterday Mr. G. R. A. .Whiting mentioned the great increase in the work of the Department of Labour office during the last few years. Some people, he said, thought there were over-many inspectors, and Labour Department officials forever worrying about the businesses of other people. When it was remembered that in Taranaki alone there were thirteen Acte and 33 arbitration awards requiring enforcement, and 1000 factories and 3000 shops under supervision it could be seen that the job was not a light one. But it was a most necessary. one. Customers and employees had to be protected; / As an example of the increasing duties of his office, Mr. Whiting mentioned the case of kerbside petrol pumps. “When I first came to New Plymouth,” he said, “you could count these on the fingers of one hand. At the end of last year there were 437 and now there must be over 500. All these have to be tested by our inspector and sealed —and that seal must not be tampered with.

“In that manner we see that the pump owners do not ‘water down’ their petrol and so defraud the motorist,” he concluded amidst laughter. He explained that there were numerous other ways in which the Department of Labour and the factory inspectors guarded the (interests of the people.