H.—22

9

Wages of Farm Employees—With a view to obtaining reliable data on the subject, a special inquiry was made some months ago, and some very informative figures as to wages were ascertained and were summarized in the Monthly Abstract according to occupations, a distinction being made between cases in which (1) board and lodging were supplied, (2) free housing was provided, and (3) there were no extras. Unemployment.—For some years past the Census and Statistics Office has been publishing statistics of unemployment, compiled from data obtained from two sources —viz., records of applications at and placements by the Labour Department's employment bureaux, and returns from secretaries of tradeunions. Arising out of the discussions of the Industrial Conference held last year, and the prominence given there and elsewhere to the subject of unemployment, arrangements were made, with the cooperation of the Labour Department, for the statistical analysis of unplaced applicants, with a view to ascertaining the type of labour which particularly suffers in time of depression. Unplaced applicants are tabulated according to such aspects as occupation, age, marital condition, number of dependants, length of time in New Zealand, and period unemployed. The office is also studying the question of the trend of employment during the year. As a first step in this direction, returns of factory production and of building and construction have been utilized to provide, by an amendment of the form, information as to the number of employees of either sex at the middle of each month of the year. Similar information is available for Public Works employees, and an extension to local authority employees is now being made. Mr. Malcolm Fraser, Government Statistician, has been appointed a member of the special Committee set up by the Government to investigate the question of unemployment. Vital Statistics. —New Zealand's vital statistics have been improved and extended during recent years until they are now widely recognized as being second to none in their completeness and accuracy. Evidence of this recognition has recently been given in connection with the decennial revision of the " International Classification of Diseases and of Causes of Death," which is to be undertaken by a congress to be held at Paris in October next. Not only was New Zealand invited to send a representative to this congress, but the views of the Census and Statistics Office in regard to points involved in the revision were sought both by the International Institute of Statistics and by the Health Organization of the League of Nations. As part of its scheme for disseminating full information concerning the public health, registration, and population and vital statistics services of the various countries of the world, the Health Organization of the League of Nations recently published a booklet containing this information for New Zealand. The portion relating to public-health services was prepared by the Health Department, and the balance of the matter by an officer of the Census and Statistics Office. Papers prepared and read by the Government Statistician on the subject of the statistical treatment of still-births and their causes have attracted considerable attention not only in New Zealand and Australia, but also in Europe. The initiation of international consideration of the subject may lead to still-births being handled statistically in the same way as infant mortality, of which problem they are really part and parcel. The introduction, early in 1928, of a system of direct query to the medical man concerned, has resulted in still further improvements being effected in the statistics of causes of death. Publications. —The Year-book and other statistical publications continue to reflect the growing development of the Dominion's statistical service. In common with its immediate predecessors, the 1929 Year-book covered new ground in several directions, a noteworthy feature being the inclusion of a special article by Messrs. E. J. Fawcett, M.A., and W. N. Paton, of the Department of Agriculture, in which the progress of live-stock production as an entity was interestingly presented by reducing the statistics to a standard basis. During the year a new departure was made in the case of the Monthly Abstract of Statistics, the letterpress portion of which is now regularly supplemented by a review of the principal monthly statistics. This publication is now also made the medium for publishing preliminary reports on and summarized statistics of the secondary industries, thus allowing of the latest figures for the principal industries to be made available at the earliest possible date. The work of dissemination is carried a step further by the Department of Industries and Commerce, which has the notes for the various industries printed off as extracts and distributed to those particularly interested in the industries concerned. Eleven of the seventeen volumes of statistics of the 1926 census results have already appeared, and others are in course of preparation. It is anticipated that the balance will be published during the current year. Every endeavour has been made to expedite the publication of the " Local Authorities Handbook," and with a certain measure of success. Dilatoriness on the part of a few local authorities in supplying statistical returns, however, is a serious obstacle to further progress. Empire Statistical Uniformity. —The main purpose of the Conference of Empire Statisticians which met at London in 1920 was to secure uniformity in statistical treatment and presentation throughout the Empire. The results to date are more noticeable as between the different self-governing Dominions than as between these on the one hand and the United Kingdom on the other, this being due partly to the non-setting-up of an Empire statistical bureau and partly to the fact that there is no central statistical bureau in the United Kingdom, where each important Department handling matters commonly treated statistically have their own statistical services. Signs are, however, not wanting that Empire uniformity has been kept steadily in view by the principal statistical authorities at Home, notably the Statistical Branch of the Board of Trade. Proposals have recently been made, for instance, for a uniform summarization of statistics of imports and exports, and the Census and Statistics Office of New Zealand is giving this proposal its full support and co-operation.

2—H. 22.