H—ll

Factory Register at 31st January, 1947. They are the figures for the previous year's re-registration altered to provide for the changes notified to the Department or discovered by Inspectors in the course of the year. They have not been subjected to the complete overhaul which re-registration entails.

Reference to Table I in the Statistical Appendix will show that the number of factories has increased. The number at 31st January, 1947, was 18,291, which is 1,002, or 6-4 per cent., in excess of the total for the previous year. The number of factory workers compares in the two years, as follows :

The total number of persons working in factories has increased by almost 8-0 per cent., in spite of the loss of more than one-twentieth of the female workers of the previous year. The outstanding feature of the figures is the increase in male employees to a figure which is 30-6 per cent, above its 1939 equivalent, and 15-2 per cent, above the figure for the year ended 31st March, 1946. It will also be apparent from Table I that the increase has been fairly evenly distributed between districts. The localities shown represent the Department's eighteen district offices, and include country areas contiguous to the centres named. The increases have been least marked in the four main centres, and greatest in the Whangarei and Tauranga areas. This would seem to indicate the way in which industry is becoming decentralized in search of labour-supplies. Table II shows a distribution of the factories and workers by industries. The classification by industries has been re-arranged for the year under review, and comparisons with previous years are not readily available, but from the Department's observations it would appear that the increase has been fairly evenly spread over all industries. (3) The Size op Factories Many investigators have called attention to the small size of New Zealand factories and to the small-scale production carried on in this country. The fact that the representative unit is small in comparison with other countries has an important bearing on many questions of industrial relations. Unions tend to be less highly organized, for instance, among workers in small, scattered establishments, and works councils seem better fitted for large undertakings. Accordingly, the factory registration figures for the past year have been subjected to analysis by size. It must be pointed out that registered factories comprise those falling within the definition of " factory " in the Factories Act. This is very wide and has been framed and extended over the years not to describe what is commonly known as a factory, but with the purpose of drawing more and more industrial workers under the protection of the Act. For purposes of comparison, reference should be made to the Government Statistician's Factory Production Statistics and to the definition of " factory " used there. Tables 111 and IV show the results of the analysis. It will at once be seen that the total number of

8

Date. Working Occupiers. Employees. Total. Male. Female. Male. Female. 31st March, 1946 31st January, 1947 Increase, per cent Decrease, per cent. 13,992 13,984 0-05 1,907 1,785 6-4 88,190 101,545 15-2 37,663 - 35,642 5-4 141,752 152,956 7-9