THE LABOR DEPARTMENT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2241, 13 July 1908, Page 1

THE LABOR DEPARTMENT.

WORK OF THE YEAR. THE BIRTH-RATE PROBLEM. [Si'eciaj, to “Times.”] AVELLINGTON, July .12. The Labor Department’s ’ report presented to Parliament on Friday says that skilled '-labor lr>s had a successful year in New /. ..land. In woollen "mills there lias Uao.i a shortage of labor. The number of men assisted by the Department since it was instituted was 158,782, with 93,226 depending on them. There lias been an increase of 798 factories and of 3315 workers during the year. The total amount of wages paid in factories was ,65,309,019, against .6-1,331,037 for the provious year. The average wage was £O7 lj)s, an. increase over that of 1906-7, which was £64 3s. In each of the chief centres there has boon a grave increase in the hours of overtime worked. In Auckland, AVellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin 733,018 hours hive thug been added to the normal time of employment. It is difficult to understand the main cause of the increase, uuless wo grant that there must have been a very great acceleration and accumulation of business, combined with a shortage of workers: Overtime work, especially for women,-is an almost unmixod evil, as regards the workers themselves, even when tempered by consideration of the extra wages earned, but such operations certainly show a state of industrial prosperity -hitherto unprecedented. “It will be noticed,” adds the-report, “that the comparative percentage of females employed has decreased, and that although more than double the number of women and girls are now employed, compared with those for 1896, tho ratio of employment of females to tllat of the males has steadily decreased. This is racially a matter of congratulation, since, in my opinion, tho less the future wives and mothers of the nation -have to encounter industrial toil and enter into industrial competition with men the better. Economically, however, and accepting the necessity of work being carried on as at present, the position is serious.”

On the subject of the scarcity of labor -and the decrease -in the birthrate, the report proceeds as follows: “So far as I have, been able to gain information, there is a real dearth of effective manual labor, but, what is far more important, the Dominion itself will supply -less and less for somo considerable time. This is owing to The low birth-rate, and to the absenco of any labor reserve that can reinforce the depleted ranks of tho workers as time removes them, one by one, through sickness, age, and death, or (in the case of women) by marriage. The birth-rate fell from 41.32 per thousand in 1876-80 to only 27.08 per thousand in 1906. If we take tho case of girls of suitable age to work in factories, wo find that in New Zeiiand between, the years 1891-96, there was ail increase of 21.62 jior cent-, in tho-number of girls between fifteen and twenty-one .years of age. In the next fivo years the increase had fallen to 6.77 per cent., and in the five years ending 1906 the rate of increase further! fell to 1.26 per cent, ill regard to still younger girls, those between five and ten years of ago, tile fiirthor want oPreserve power for our labor supply is apparent. In 1881-86 there was an increase of girls of -the ages mentioned of 24.34 per cent. In 1886-91 tlio increase fell to 1.90 per cent. In IS9I-96 there was a decline of 0.29 per cent. In 18961901 a decrease of 0.10 per cent, took place, and in 1901-6 iau increase of 4.81 jier cent. Even if this latter increase bo maintained or added to, it wifi take a long time to make up for tlio “lean years” of the previous decade.” As a concrete example, I may point out that Mr. Hally, tho Inspector of Factories at Dunedin, in his report draws attention to the fact that the average daily attendance at tho Dunedin schools fell from 4,148 pupils in 1887 to 2882 in 1907. These returns are taken from tlio report of the Education Board of Otago, and, in spite of the large ■increase of population, show generally remarkable absence of that class of increase of those from five years of age to fifteen years useful for training to industrial! conunerical life. The figures regarding tho boys are very much on the same lines as those of the girls. Such figures .as the result of 20 years practical growth are naturally startling to those who have to make provision for the welfare of the people generally. The difficulty may not bo evaded or shirked either. Our industries, instead of expanding, must shrink and disappear, or the workers to carry on these industries must be found. That there are few and fewer recruits available among children of the Dominion • will appear certain .as time goes on, and tliero could be a -remarkable filling up of cradles. From this moment onwards it would still take years to close tbe present vacant spaces in the thin ranks of our children who are now between five and fifteen years of age. For those who disapprove altogether of industrialism, in New Zealand, or' for those who wish to see (labor at a decided premium, the threatened trouble may be a matter for rejoicing. Nevertheless, it is certain that to a large number of our people the cessation of many of our industries through the' want of men and women to carry them on would bo a serious and most irreparable loss. It is reasonable to sympathise with the workers who object to be taxed on their earning in order that immigrants may be introduced as their competitors, but it lies with their earnest thinkers to give strenuous consideration to this pressing and very important subject so that an alternative to immigration may, if possible, be found as a necessary counterpoise to the declining birth-rate.