H—ll

(6) Apart from the above-mentioned difficulties, breaches were few, the main ones arising from the difficulty experienced by employers in computing the amount of holiday pay due on termination of the services of employees. This arises out of the complex definition of " ordinary pay " referred to above. (7) Table XXII in the Appendix shows that the alleged breaches by employers requiring investigation totalled 1,223, compared with 1,055 in 1947-48. Warnings issued totalled 775, compared with 871 in the previous year. (o) Public Holidays Amendment Act, 1948 This measure amended the Public Hobdays Act, 1910, by transferring the holiday benefits in those years where Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on a Saturday. In this event the special conditions prescribed by the Act, award, or agreement for Christmas Day and New Year's Day are applied to work done on the following Mondays, and the special conditions prescribed for work on Boxing Day and 2nd January are applied to work done on the following Tuesdays. It should be noted that this does not transfertile observance of these special holidays, but merely affects the conditions of work. Work performed on the Saturday or Sunday is to be paid for as for any other Saturday or Sunday. Provision is also made for the observance on the following Monday of any provincial anniversary day where such anniversary day falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Section 5 of the Amendment gives effect to the desire that Anzac Day should be observed on 25th April and on no other day by declaring void the provisions in any Act, award, or industrial agreement for the transfer of Anzac Day to any other day. It is still permissible, however, to grant an extra holiday on another day to any worker who is required to work on Anzac Day at ordinary rates. The " Monday-izing " of holidays that fall on Saturdays is a concomitant of the five-day week and places those years in which a holiday (except Anzac Day) falls on a Saturday in the same position as all other years in regard to the number of holidays granted to workers. (p) Servants' Registry Offices Act, 1908 The Department has a responsibility for the registration and inspection of servants' registry offices and the general supervision of their activities. The Department's own employment activities provide most of the placements throughout the country, and there are now only 13 private servants' registry offices in the Dominion, of which only two (one each in Auckland and Wellington) have any substantial number of placements, principally of hotel staffs. Most of the registry offices are attached to other businesses. The number registered in the last four years was : 1945-46, 31; 1946-47, 23 ; 1947-48, 16 ; 1948-49, 13. (q) Sharemilking Agreements Act Almost the whole of the activity under this Act has been confined to the larger dairying districts of the North Island, but even there the number of inquiries for information and advice concerning the requirements of the Act and standard sharemilking agreements tends to decline, probably because of the wider knowledge of the provisions. Information pamphlets have been supplied to a number of farmers and solicitors, and the Department has had a few requests to appoint arbitrators between parties where a dispute has arisen. In several cases district officers have acted as third parties in the settling of disputes.

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