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276. A negative but none the less important contribution of the Department's rejection of applications to terminate is the inhibitive effect which this widely publicized practice has upon workers who would otherwise have moved from important industries. No means of measuring this indirect contribution of man-power control exists. 277. In addition to the rejection of applications to terminate, a comparable contribution has been made by refusal of applications to engage in either essential or unessential undertakings. From the Ist -Tuly, 1944 (when this information regarding essential industries was collected for the first time), to the 31st March, 1945, a total of 890 applications to engage in essential industry has been rejected by Man-power Officers, and this has almost invariably resulted in the direction of the workers concerned from their existing employment to other employment. The rejection of these applications, notwithstanding the unchallenged essentiality of the undertaking, has been due to the existence of higher priority vacancies in other undertakings and to the comparative adequacy of staff in the concerns whose applications have been rejected. In addition, there has been a total of 4,109 rejections of applications to engage in less essential industries. Here, too, the negative contribution of control must have been an important factor in stabilizing the labour force of more important industries, although, again, the precise magnitude of this contribution is unascertainable. 278. The results of applications to engage in essential industry and less-essential industries are analysed in some detail in Tables 29 and 30 of the Appendix. (vi) Appeals against the Decisions of Man-power Officers 279. Ignoring for the time being appeals against fines inflicted by Man-power Officers for absenteeism, misconduct, &c., appeals against the decision of the Man-power Officer arise under two headings. The first of these covers appeals against direction into essential work, and the second appeals against rejection of applications to terminate from essential undertakings. Appeals against refusal of the District Mau-power Officer to permit engagement in employment do not frequently arise, because such workers are generally directed to essential employment and their appeal, if they wish to prefer one, is then an appeal not against the refusal to grant permission to engage in unessential employment, but against the direction to essential employment. To date only 4,922 appeals against the total 168,612 directions have been lodged. This yields an appeal percentage of only 2-9. Of the total appeals, 2,311 (1-4 per cent, of the total directed cases) have been employers' appeals and 2,611 workers' appeals. The corresponding percentage of workers' appeals to the total directions issued was 1-5. Of the appeals actually dealt with, 2,058, or 42 per cent., have been uphold, 863 have been withdrawn, and the balance of 2,001 have been dismissed. Table 36 of the Appendix gives details of appeals against directions into essential work. 280. In the field of appeals against refusal to permit termination of employment in essential industry, 5,853 appeals against a total of 230,511 decisions during the whole period, January, 194-2, to 31st March, 1945, have been lodged. Of these appeals, 978 have been lodged in respect of 70,234 decisions resulting from applications by employers. The balance of 4,875 appeals have arisen out of 160,277 decisions resulting from applications by employees. Of the total of 5,615 appeals dealt with, 1,747 have been upheld, 2,744 have been dismissed, and 1,124 have been withdrawn. A detailed analysis of the outcome of appeals against decisions regarding termination of employment in essential industry is given in Table 37 of the Appendix. SECTION V.—WOMEN IN INDUSTRY (i) Before the War 281. During the decade 1929-39 there was a remarkable increase in the number of gainfully employed New Zealand women. Various estimates of the 1929 total, all more or less incomplete, have been made, but it seems that the figure could not have greatly exceeded 100,000. This is supported by the aggregate of females gainfully employed yielded by the 1936 census (140,000), by which time there had already been some increase in female employment. 282. Conclusions invited from the available data concerning the pre-war employment of women are— (a) New Zealand was slow to experience the trend towards wholesale employment of women : widespread- employment of women did not become noticeable until 1935, many years after it had become established in the United States of America, Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe generally. (b) Between 1935 and 1939 there was a blossoming of employment opportunities for women, almost all industries being affected, but the rapidly expanding manufacturing industries especially so. (c) Much of the industrial expansion that has been such a striking feature of the last decade is due in no small measure to the widespread employment of women. Typical manufacturing industries are clothing and boot and shoe manufacturing. On the retailshop side also a great increase in retail distributive activity rested to a considerable extent on the employment of female labour. (ii) Wartime Industrialization of Women 283. As would be expected, the war accentuated the trend towards widespread industrialization of women. 284. Between September, 1939, and December, 1943 (the peak employment figure for women), the total number of women gainfully employed was estimated to have risen from 180,000 to 228,000, a gain of 48,000. Almost all industries were affected. Table 22 of the Appendix gives particulars of women registered under all. industrial, registration Orders.

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