LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 11875, 30 September 1902, Page 3

LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Mr Tregear, in the annual report laid before Parliament last week from the Labow Department, says it is his pleasant duty once more to "report a prosperous year for the labouring classes in New Zealand. The steadiness of employment, the extension of industries and the improvements in regard to wages, hours of work, overtime pay. etc.. have made the position of the workers generally more endurable than it has been for* many years. Trade and business within the. colony, says Mr Tregear. hive been phenomenally active, as the' increased yields in many departments of public revenue inotaWv the Government railway returns! disclose. In spite of some disturbance of the economic centre by disquieting reports concerning the tariff to be applied by the Commonwealth of Australia, ntid the consequent restraint? upon n m? branches of our Australian trade, openings in other direction? apepared and stimulated producers to renewed activities, the effects of which, will pi> b biy ni kc themselves apparent before another year has passed. Artisans, mechanic and all skilled workers have found their serviie- in demand, and g<x»d earnings to l>e obtained for efficient service. The woollen mills at Mosgiel. Ros'yn. Oain.iru. Timara. Kaiapoi and Pctonc have all been taxed to the full extent of the energies of those employed, and two new mil!?'—one at Milton, one at Napier—3re ready to Mart into business at once to help to tnci't ihe demand for New Zealand twe-tds and tlannels. The building trades have seldom had so long a run of full time; carpenter.*, plumbers, bricklayers, painters, etc. have been in demand all over the ralimy. The engineering a:«? inm trades have in sonic places het-zt bris'c. but generally have been slack—or. rather, slack as compared with the condition of things two years ago. The in< n-ascd price «f New Zt-aland hemp ha* s tumble.i thflax industty. and the mills nre.krpt busy. Alth'iugh the condition of the lipot-inanu-factnrer in factories is better as regards steadiness of work and wages than it was lis; year, ilitre is still nnich grumhlrnc in the trade, but. in the ••pinion of Mr Tregear. ihere is not much reason for dis satisfaction on ihc side of cither employers or workmen. There is no need, he says, to despair of the boot trade in New Zealand, in spite of the faint-hearted, for if imiMirlation has increased, so also has the liK-al output. "Hie scnet.irj- expresses approval of the improved Factories Act of last year, and says there is now no reason why New Zealand should not >hori3y become a model community so far as its industrial cst.ah lishmcn's are mncened. The approximate number of factory.workers in the colony is 55.395. showing an increase of 1055 as compared with the nunitar in 1901. The total imtcis,. i„ ,i, c imwbtr lsir.ee 1895 is 25.516. The laws rclaiinc

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