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The Chief Inspector of Factories to the Hon the Minister of Labour. .Sir, Department of Labour, Wellington, 10th April, 1907. 1 have the honour to submit to you my report on the various Acts under my supervision, and also as to the general work of the Department. In October, 1906, I was appointed to the position of Chief Inspector of Factories, Mr. John Umas, of Dunedin, being appointed Deputy Chief, and transferred to the Head Office. The work of the Department continues to grow very rapidly; it has been found necessary to increase the staff considerably during the year. The passing of new legislation and the ordinary increases in the general work of the Department are chiefly responsible for this increase. In the Head Office alone there is now a staff of twenty-eight hands, whilst in 1904 there were fourteen. The Scaffolding Inspection Act, which is being administered by this Department, necessitated the appointment of an expert Inspector in each of the chief centres; and the handing over of the Workers' Dwellings Act to this Department in February last by the Lands Department has resulted in increased work being placed on the officers. Mr. Woburn Temple has been appointed Architect; his duties comprise the drawing of plans and the superintending of the building of workers' dwellings generally in course of construction The Factories Act. As will be seen by the figures quoted by Mr. Tregear in his report, the increase shown in the number of factories registered for the year constitutes a record, although the increase in number of hands for the year falls short by a few of that of 1904, which was 4,921, as against 4,907 this year. The reports of Inspectors generally show that the Act continues to work well. During the year I have been able to personally visit many of our Inspectors, and have also taken the opportunity of visiting many factories. Undoubtedly the tendency is towards improvement. More care is given by occupiers to the requirements of the Act, and quite a different feeling exists to-day towards this legislation from that existing a decade ago. Plans of new factories are not only submitted to our Inspectors for approval without demur, but suggestions for improvement are readily asked for and agreed to, even although considerable extra cost is involved. More attention has been given during the year to systematize the work of factory inspection A card system has been introduced into every agency of the Department, and is now in thorough working-order. Each factory is entered on a separate card, and every visit of an Inspector is recorded; and information is also shown, such as the occurrence of an accident, and any breach of the Aot or an award of the Arbitration Court. The cards are alphabetically arranged in street order in neat card cabinets. These cards are referred to on any of my official visits, and, forming as they do a complete record of each factory, it can be seen at a glance which are conducted by law-abiding occupiers and those which are not. They will also show the date of visit of each Inspector, so that it can be readily seen which places have or have not been visited. I would also respectfully draw your attention to the fact that the factory statistics in this report are shown in a different way from former years. The greatest advantages of the present system are that information is shown in a more concise and more easily understood form, besides showing the total wages paid in each trade, and also the number of indentured apprentices. No comparisons can vet bo made in the total wages paid, as the figures this year are given for the first time; but in future years they should form a most interesting feature in our industrial statistics. A separate fable is also included this year showing the various award rates paid to both factory and shop hands. It is, as you are aware, proposed to amend the Act this year, principally by making the provisions relating to the employment of women and young persons apply to Chinese. It is felt that the unrestricted hours of employment worked by Chinese in industries giving work to a large number of women and young persons is neither fair nor just; particularly in the laundry trade is this competition most keenly felt. The Chinese are at present unrestricted as to hours or holidays and are thus enabled to compete unfairly with Europeans. Victoria has found it to her

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