RETURNS! RETURNS! RETURNS!

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13058, 28 April 1910, Page 4

RETURNS! RETURNS! RETURNS!

The number of returns which business people have to make out each year for various Departments of State is a source of great and endless worry to them. Especially is this the case with respect to factories, shops and offices and the, extra book-keeping outside ordinary ’business requirements necessary to supply these demands is quite a tax. Now the Labour Department is adding fuel to the lire by sending out notices to factories and shops, giving particulars of the information required by the Department next year, partly for the Census Department and- partly for the Labour Department. The information required for the census will include the date of commencing operations; the character of the organisation and of the industry; the value of the land, buildings, machinery, tools, and implements; materials used during tho year —the actual cost of those purchased in tho raw state and those purchased in partially manufactured form, and name and quantity of principal materials and cost of each ; • other working expenses, such as cost of fuel, oil, waste, and other supplies; amount paid for rout, of po\yer and heat, for rates, for rent, interest, insurance, taxation, .stamps, repairs of buildings and machinery, advertising, and other sundries,; goods manufactured at workshops or factory (quantity and value); and a heap of details with regard to age of workers, hours of employment, wages, overtime, nature of work done, it will take a big army of clerks to compile the information for the Departments of State when it is supplied by the worried employers, and the cost of printing and publishing same will be considerable. And, then —what benefit is derived? Eeally, this return business is being done to death.