materials afford employment in the aggregate to 23,611 persons in Australia, of whom all but 77 are males. It has been remarked that brick and masonry construction predominate in some States, and that buildings of this character form a much larger proportion of the total number than is usual in new countries, with an extensive and sparsely settled frontier. But the timber industry employs the larger number of hands, as far as the manufacturing of materials alone is concerned, or 17,178 persons, as compared with 6,484 engaged in clay, cement, and stone working. The statistics include with the clay working occupations makers of earthenware and pottery, not an important industry, however, in Australia. The sawmills cut about half a billion feet of timber per annum, and the brickmakers turn out in the neighborhood of 300,000,000 brick.

In Victoria the wages in urban sawmills and sash factories are regulated by a board, which has established for a 48-hour week a scale of wages ranging from $10.22 and $10.95 for men running mortising machines and shingle saws to $13.87 for band sawyers who sharpen and braze their own saws. The highest minimum wage of foremen, who are classified according to the size of their gangs, is placed at $16.06 a week. These rates are for urban workmen and are probably higher than those paid in country mills. The average wage of 1,149 adult males employed in this work in Victoria was $12.15 a week. In New South Wales the average wages of 76 sawyers were $10.75 a week, and of 143 laborers, $8.09 a week. There were 561 males of all ages employed in mill occupations, earning upon an average $8.52 a week. The average pay of general hands in Queensland is reported as $9.65 a week and of machine hands $11.54 a week.

Under the determination of the board regulating the wages of brickmakers in Victoria, the lower paid hands must receive a minimum wage of 18 cents an hour for 48 hours a week, or more exactly $8.76 a week. The highest minimum established is $15.57 a week for burners employed on patent kilns for 64 hours' work. First-class engineers, employed 57 hours a week, receive about $14.45. The average weekly earnings of 345 adult males employed in the urban districts of Victoria were $11.05. The average earnings of 916 male employees of all ages, of whom but 51 were under 18 years of age, in the factory inspection districts of New South Wales are given as $11.44 a week, the highest wages, except for supervision, being those of engineers, 21 of whom averaged $17.54 a week, and of burners, 62 of whom are reported to have received $14.60 a week. The number of hours worked is not stated. An average of the weekly earnings of 90 laborers employed in the industry is given as $9.53. There were 133 adult male hands in this industry in South Australia whose average wages were $8.37 a week.

12425-No. 56-05- -15

Engineering and metal-working trades give employment to 37.257 persons, of whom but 69 are females. General iron working employs nearly half of these, about one-fifth are in the various government railway shops, and one-sixth are engaged in smelting works. According to distribution in the different States, New South Wales leads with nearly 14,000, and Victoria comes second with 9.656 in these trades. South Australia has over 6,000 employed, and Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania follow in the order mentioned. The leadership of New South Wales over Victoria is due almost entirely to the smelting industry, which employs over 3,000 men in the former State, as against 59 in the latter. South Australia also has 2.443 persons in the smelting industry, which explains her high rank in proportion to population among the 6 States. Victoria almost monopolizes the manufacture of agricultural implements with 1,057 employees of the 1,451 engaged in this business in the Commonwealth. One harvester manufacturer at Ballarat employs 550 men, values his output at $30,000 a week, and ships extensively to the Argentine and Algiers. This industry is also thriving in South Australia. In Victoria the average weekly wages of iron molders were, for 678 adult males, $11.58, and for 960 males of all ages, $9.21 a week.

In the general engineering trades in Victoria wages are reported to be for 2,793 adult males $11.03, and for 3,914 males of all ages $8.78. In New South Wales the average wages of 9962 males of all ages, under the heading "iron works, foundries, and boilermaking," are given as $10.02, while under the head engineering" 1,534 males of all ages are reported to receive an average wage of $8.84. The highest wages reported for some half dozen foremen, including a “specialist,” are $19.31 to $19.47 a week. Brass molders and finishers earn $10.71 and $11.76 a week, respectively; 43 iron molders average $13.83, and 995 fitters and turners $11.03 a week. Pattern makers average $14.80. Car builders earn about $13.34 weekly, the highest wage in the shop being paid to a foreman painter, who receives $24.33 a week. There is no material variation from these rates in the figures reported from Queensland. Statistics of railway shop mechanics' wages are given in connection with transportation. Shipbuilding and repairing employ 9,367 workmen in the Commonwealth, nearly three-fourths of whom are in New South Wales. The general range of wages conforms roughly with that prevailing in the engineering trades just reviewed. The manufacture of furniture and bedding employs 4,426 men and 420 women in Australia, and the industry is centered mainly in Victoria and New South Wales. The Chinese competition in this class of occupations has already been mentioned. In New South Wales the average wages of males employed in the industry is given at $8.25, and of females, 84.12 a week. As stated in a previous connection, the determination of the wages board in Victoria places the minimum

wage of females at $4.87 a week, and of males at $11.19 a week in that State. This is for adult employees. The average wages paid 541 adult male European cabinetmakers are $12.31, and those paid to 435 Chinese, $11.88 a week. The accuracy of the latter figures is questioned by the authorities who present them.

Printing trades employ 13,558 males and 2,924 females in the Commonwealth, Victoria leading and New South Wales standing second in these occupations. The wage board determination in the former State gives compositors a minimum of $12.65 for 48 hours a week, proof readers a dollar a week more, and linotype operators $17.03 for a 42-hour week. Adult male feeders get $8.76, and female feeders over 18 years of age $4.87 for a 48-hour week. Lithographers and stereotypers are given the same rate as compositors. The average pay of 1,144 adult male printers in the metropolitan district of Victoria was $12.42, and of the 263 reported outside of that district, $10.67. But few females are employed in this occupation in Victoria. The average weekly pay of 2,068 males of all ages employed in these trades in New South Wales was $9.35 a week, as compared with $9.04 a week for 1,782 males of all ages employed in the metropolitan district of Victoria. In Brisbane compositors were being paid $14.60 a week on the labor paper, $13.63 in the government printing office, and $12.17 on the daily papers. Linotype men receive 64 cents a thousand "ens," and hand compositors 24.3 cents a thousand "ens" for day and 26 cents for night work. No "fat" is allowed.

Vehicle building, saddlery, and harness making are fairly important industries in Australia, and employ a total of 7,855 men and 117 women. Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland lead in these occupations in the order named. Wages range about the same as in the furniture trades, the minimum set in the two occupations of saddlery and cabinetmaking being identical in Victoria. The average wages of adult male saddlers in that State are given at $12.27 a week, and the average wages of all males of all ages in that occupation are reported to be $8.37, as compared with $7.89 a week in New South Wales. Adult male saddlers and harness makers in Brisbane are reported to earn $10.16 a week, and in Adelaide, $8.11 a week. The wages of coach builders, cycle repairers, nave and spoke makers, etc., average within a few cents of the same as those of saddlers.

Miscellaneous factory production gives employment to between 13,000 and 14,000 people in Australia, but none of these branches is important singly. The tobacco trades employ 1,632 males and 1,347 females, and are relatively far more important than any other industry under this head. The average pay of 624 males employed in New South Wales is $7.60 a week, and of 390 females, $3.73. Employers in this industry in Victoria complain of the operation of the minimum wage board, stating that it has affected the trade adversely, and that

the determination has been so framed as to discourage or prevent the use of machinery. In one determination, covering special factory brands, for instance, there is a regulation made by the board that, "The lowest prices for covering machine-made cigars (except Bonanzas'), shall be two-thirds of the piecework price for making right through." The factory in question removed its machinery to Adelaide in order to defeat the provisions of the board. It is claimed that in this trade it is necessary practically to get a new determination whenever it is proposed to introduce a new brand or quality of goods, and that as the boards contain members and employees of rival firms, this prejudices the chance of an enterprising manufacturer of getting a taking line of goods upon the market before his competitors. The piecework price established by the board ranges from a maximum of $1.46 a hundred for hand work, down to 60 cents a hundred for cheap quality cigars made in molds. For sorting and packing prices range from 60 cents to $1.33 a thousand, according to quality of goods and sizes of boxes. Cigars are used less in Australia than in America, pipes and cigarettes replacing them to a great extent. The average earnings of all male employees in the industry in Victoria were $8.96 a week, and of females, $6.43. In South Australia the average wages of males were $9.81, and of females of all ages, $2.80 a week.

The following rates of wages have been tabulated from data contained in the chapter upon industrial wages in the New South Wales statistical registers for the years in question and from information contained in the report of the chief inspector of factories of Queensland. The wage statistics of other States, while in some instances almost as complete, are not classified in a manner to allow a comparative showing with those here given, or are only approximate averages, worked down to even shillings or sixpences a week, and showing very little variation from year to year. The table shows the number of employees whose wages were averaged and the average weekly rate of pay for three successive years.

AVERAGE WAGES IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS IN BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, AND SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1900 TO 1902.

AVERAGE WAGES IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS IN BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, AND SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1900 TO 1902-Concluded.

The transportation industry engages the labor of over 109,000 persons, a large proportion of whom are employed in the railway and marine service. In the coasting trade the average rate of pay of seamen in New South Wales is given as $24.33 a month on sailing vessels and $31.63 on steamers. Chief engineers receive $116.80 a month, first officers on steamers $73, and second officers $58.40 a month. On sailing vessels first officers are stated to receive $38.93 and second officers $27.98 a month. Firemen are paid between $40 and $45. Stewards receive all the way from $30 to $60, according to their rank and to the class of the vessel upon which they are employed. Australia is still in the throes of adjusting her coastal trade laws to the new demands and possibilities of federation. Though there is no disposition, partly out of recognition of the rights of the Empire, to follow the precedent of the United States, and to confine coasting trade to her