7

H.-6

girls working at skilled trades shall be properly apprenticed, thus doing away with casual labour; secorfd, that the ratio of apprentices to adult workers in each trade should be regulated by enactment. It is probable that if such suggestions can be carried into effect the present body of skilled workmen will benefit greatly, although it intensifies the present difficulty of trying to find employment for our growing population of young people. CHARITABLE AID. I again beg to urge consideration of charitable-aid organization, and strongly advocate the centralisation and arrangement of information as to money spent in alms-giving, and Benevolent Society work generally. Without suggesting withdrawal of funds from local dissemination and management, attention should be given to the " overlap" in their distribution. At present, especially in the centres of population, some undeserving people are receiving relief from several charitable societies at the same time, while far more deserving cases go unnoticed through the independence and right-minded pride of the sufferers. With information gathered through the factory branch of my department, I am acquainted with cases where people partly supported by charity take piecework to their homes at prices which "undercut" those workers who will not accept alms. What is needed is an organized system of interchange of information, extending even to the names and descriptions of those receiving assistance, the amounts spent, and, if possible, the results. The expense of formulating such information, and federalising the provincial societies, would not be great, while the waste of public and private funds would be very much checked. Some appear horrified if mention is made of a poor-rate in New Zealand, but they forget, or are in ignorance, that a partial poor-rate is already paid through municipal and local levies. Private beneficence is an excellent thing morally (especially when not paid as insurance premium against social evils intensified by the donors), but at present it exists as a heavy tax levied on a few generous persons, in order that others may escape their due share of poor-rate. If it is the duty of the State to defend its citizens against plunder, or against death by assassination, it is also its duty to see that none are killed by starvation. This responsibility is not to be shifted from the concrete body of citizens on to the shoulders of a few kind-hearted individuals, whose funds are now continually depleted and drained through subscription-lists proffered on every side. The moral point is clear, the immoral one painfully apparent. THE DEPARTMENTAL POSITION. The Department of Labour has suffered since its commencement from two sources of weakness. It was intended to promote decentralisation of workers and to collect industrial statistics. It has only been able very partially to do either, for the following reasons: — 1. Decentralisation. —Not only is it desirable to induce men to proceed to country districts to work, but to keep them there, if possible, and engage them on productive lands. It is like pouring water into a bottomless cask to keep shifting men out from towns into the country while offering them no inducement to stay there. If a married man goes to work in the bush, leaving his wife and family behind him in town, he is certain to gravitate homewards again. He does so in compliance with a natural and commendable instinct, against which the department could exert no influence, even if it wished to do so. It was understood, at first that for the men sent away small allotments of land w rould be provided near their work, so that the wives and families could be removed thereto, and make homes in the country. Had this been adhered to the scheme would have been an undeniable success; but, unfortunately, the Government has not been able to fulfil such requirement: the men have been sent out, and, except in a few cases, the land is not forthcoming. Available land has not been obtainable in the vicinity of works; private holders have gained possession of so much of the country that Crown lands suitable for cutting up into village homesteads or small farms could not be obtained. When the Government, either by legislation or by purchase of Native lands, is able to complete the system which this department was founded in part to carry out, then for the first time we shall have a new field for energy in meeting the labour question fully and completely. 2. Industrial Statistics. —The main object in forming the Labour Department was the collection of industrial statistics. Lor this purpose also were instituted the State Bureaux of Labour and the Central Department of Labour in the United States, and these have been followed by the creation of similar offices in every civilised country. On the importance of such an object it is unnecessary to dilate ; it has been generally acknowledged that few things are so vital to national well-being as an exhaustive comprehension of all questions bearing on rent, cost of materials, tariffs, exports, imports, hours of work, age and sex of employes, causes of depression in trade, factory legislation, &c. It has been found impossible in any country to get in reliable and trustworthy information except in two ways—either by legally-compulsory answers to circulars or by legally-compulsory answers to questions of itinerant agents. Eeliance on voluntary answers to circulars is sheer folly, and this department has suffered from experience in the universal disappointment which has attended the system elsewhere. Except for factories (where the records and information are compulsorily furnished), it is hopeless to expect any reliable statistics to be furnished by this department while its present status continues. It must have legal power to collect its statistics, or be silent. In other countries even private societies and trade-unions are spending money and energy in acquiring a real knowledge of their financial and industrial standing-ground. The following quotation will show that trade-unions in the Old Country appreciate the advantage of the scientific position when they attempt to cope with other powerful organizations and with the vicissitudes of commercial life:— But it is none the less true that in the cotton trade, as in other trades, the factors which determine the profits are also those which regulate wages. The officers of the trade-unions have now learnt to keep a careful watch over the movements of these factors, particularly the fluctuations in the price of raw material and the price of the finished