H.—lla.

standard, remuneration, and working-conditions of the large number of the Department's temporary employees have recently been effected with a further improvement in general morale and esprit de corps. The remuneration of the temporary stafE employed throughout the Department's bureaux has been substantially improved in comparison with the virtual relief rates that had previously been paid for work which, in its essentials of administration, differed in no way from that of large departmental organizations. Working-conditions have, in many centres, been far from desirable and modern offices have gradually been established in place of the makeshift premises in which the district staffs have been housed. While Auckland and Christchurch have been given greatly improved quarters, the accommodation in Wellington and Dunedin (as well as some smaller centres) is still far from satisfactory. LEGISLATION. The Employment Promotion Act, 1936, was enacted on the Ist June, 1936, and regulations in pursuance thereof came into force on the 4th June, 1936. On the 4th April, 1938, additional regulations became effective. These regulations provided for the adoption of a declaration as to industrial and occupational status combined with an annual declaration of income other than salary or wages which had been required of taxpayers for the past eight years. Although the administrative activities as to employment tax are controlled by the Commissioner of Taxes, the amendment and extension of the annual declaration form was promulgated by the Minister of Labour as being the Minister responsible for the administration of the Employment Promotion Act. Accordingly, it is appropriate to describe here the purpose of the new regulations. Under the mandatory provisions therein contained every person, who under the Act is obliged to render a declaration in respect of income other than salary or wages, is bound to declare his or her industrial and occupational status. It is expected that, from the information thus made available, accurate and up-to-date employment statistics may readily be compiled. In the past, detailed information concerning employment and unemployment in various occupations and industries has been very meagre, owing to its source being almost wholly confined to the census returns which are obtained at periods of not more often than every five years. The knowledge which will be acquired from the declarations will be of great value in demonstrating the trends of employment and of the relative movements in different industries. It will also contribute to the provision of reliable statistics, which have unfortunately been so conspicuously absent in the past, for planning the availability of qualified labour in various occupations, for the execution of the work of vocational guidance centres, and generally for the proper administration of employment and cognate problems. Under section 12 of the Finance Act (No. 2), 1937, provision was made whereby every person for the time being engaged under New Zealand articles on an intercolonial trading ship within the meaning of the Shipping and Seamen Act, 1908, is deemed to be ordinarily resident in New Zealand for the purposes of the Employment Promotion Act, 1936, unless, in the case of any such person who is not in fact ordinarily resident in New Zealand, he satisfies the Commissioner of Taxes that he is liable for tax of a like nature to employment tax imposed in the country in which he is ordinarily resident. This enactment removed a previous anomaly whereby a number of seamen, not ordinarily resident in New Zealand, and employed as above on ships trading between Australia and New Zealand particularly, escaped liability for employment tax in either country. The section became operative from the Ist April, 1938. UNEMPLOYMENT POSITION. Unemployment registrations totalled 8,721 at 4th June, 1938. These figures (exclusive of 1,301 awaiting expiration of their qualifying period and included in the total of 8,721), represent men who state they are fit for work and' who have lost their engagement through no fault of their own. The number does not include men who have become a charge upon the Employment Promotion Fund through loss of employment on account of sickness, advancing years, etc. Eight thousand persons were receiving assistance at 4th June on account of unfitness for employment for health or other reasons. Statutory power to extend unemployment relief to such classes of persons was taken in the Employment Promotion Act, 1936. The total unemployed men at 4th June receiving and/or awaiting assistance from the Employment Promotion Fund was thus 16,721 as compared with 27,323 at 28th August, 1937, the date as at which the previous report was prepared. From the evidence so far obtained in the course of an individual examination of the physical and other qualifications of men on relief, it appears that a number of the relief recipients who claim they are fit for worK may be more correctly classified with the group now receiving assistance on account of ill health, indigency, &c. No account has been taken in the foregoing statements of the numbers of men in full-time employment subsidized in whole or in part from the Fund. The exclusion of these figures is consistent with Government policy in determining that the work capacity of every fit worker shall be preserved after he has lost his occupation by providing him with full-time work at award or other applicable rate of pay with State Departments or with local bodies. Having been provided with such work, whether subsidized wholly or partly from the Fund, the workers are no longer classified as genuinely unemployed. Accordingly, the official figures of unemployed published at four-weekly intervals have since September, 1937, excluded the numbers in subsidized full-time employment, but the expenditure on such has been

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