H—ll

(4) The following table shows the provinces in which assisted immigrants who arrived in New Zealand during the last year have settled:— Auckland .. .. 491 Nelson .. .. 31 Hawkes Bay .. .. 40 Westland .. .. 27 Taranaki .. .. 23 Canterbury .. .. 243 Wellington .. .. 485 Otago .. .. 147 Marlborough .. .. 4 Southland .. .. 37 Assisted immigrants are placed in employment in those occupations for which they have been selected and in localities in which accommodation is available. Within these limits, every effort is made to place them in localities for which they have expressed a preference, so that the geographical distribution of immigrants is governed to a certain extent by the preferences of the immigrants themselves. (5) Arrangements have been made for the admission of 100 Dutch farm workers, and a number of these have now arrived and commenced work in New Zealand. The agreement which was entered into with the Netherlands authorities provides that suitable employment would be found for these new settlers, but that the New Zealand Government would not be responsible either for providing passages or meeting the cost of fares. Negotiations are still proceeding with the Netherlands authorities as restrictions on the movement of currency from that country now make emigration to New Zealand difficult. It is hoped that a satisfactory agreement will shortly be reached as these Dutch settlers have proved particularly suitable, and their services are keenly sought after by farmers throughout this country. Section 3—lndustrial Welfare (a) Factories Act, 1946 (1) This report covers the second year of operation of the Factories Act, 1946, the statute that prescribes the minimum conditions of work for the Dominion's 165,000 factory workers. The statute is used also by the Arbitration Court as a basis in setting the minimum conditions in many awards that are not concerned with factory employment, and parts of the Act have also been applied administratively to other workers agreements —for example, to the administration of the Public Service Act, 1912, and similar legislation affecting the Post and Telegraph and Railways Departments. (2) Tables XI and XII of the Appendix contain the figures of registered factories and number of persons employed in each district and in each major industrial group. (It should be noted that figures in the industrial groups in Table XII are not comparable with those shown in previous years' reports, as the classification has been changed to the international industrial classification adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1943—the same as has been used by the Department in recent years for employment statistics.) The total number of registered factories at 31st March, 1949, was 19,700, compared with 19,102 at 31st March, 1948, an increase of 598. The increase in the number of factqry workers over the twelve months was 2,358 males, less a reduction of 476 in females, a net total of 1,882. (In order to keep them comparable with previous years these figures do not include Government-owned factories totalling 324 and employing 11,706 workers (of which 186 are females). Such factories were not subject to registration prior to the passing of the 1946 Act.) It is obvious that the expanding tendencies of the manufacturing industries noted in the reports of recent years is continuing, and, while factory industry generally is unable to satisfy its labour requirements, particularly

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