passing up into the better-paid classifications. For example, in the mercantile industry the returns indicate that adult women receiving the highest salaries ($25 a week or over) number more than twice as many in 1921 as in 1920. The pay-rolls show no justification for the fear sometimes expressed that the setting of a legal minimum wage for adult workers would cause wholesale replacement by those under age."

Considerable difficulty was experienced by the Board in fixing schedules of wages for inexperienced workers in the manufacturing industries owing to the varying length of time required for training in different manufacturing processes. Public meetings were held during the year, and advisory committees were appointed by the British British Columbia Manufacturers' Association and the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council. The question was still under consideration as the year closed, but the report contains an appendix in which it is pointed out that on March 20, 1922, the Board issued a notice tabulating certain schedules of wages which it was proposed to adopt in regard to inexperienced female workers in the manufacturing industries. These schedules classify inexperienced workers by industrial groups, with varying periods allowed for training according to the comparative difficulty of the processes to be learned. Inexperienced girls under 18 are signed in all cases a longer learning period than women over 18 years. In the first group, which covers the manufacturing or preparing of certain enumerated articles involving slight technical knowledge in their handling, the wages are graduated in four stages each of one month for inexperienced women, and in four 2-month stages for young girls. In the second group the four successive stages are respectively 2 months and 3 months for the adult and juvenile classes. In the third group the stages are 3 months and 4 months, while in the fourth group, including the more highly specialized callings, such as custom tailoring, dressmaking, etc., the four

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stages of the learning period are respectively four and six months each. In all four groups the weekly wage is advanced from $8.00 to $14.00, the latter figure being the legal minimum for inexperienced workers in the manufacturing industries. The new schedules, however, do not apply to those trades and crafts in which indentured apprenticeship is still customary; to work at these latter trades applicants must first secure special permits from the Board. The Board, it is pointed out, has no stated order regarding part time workers, as it has been legally advised that no authority may require an employer to pay for hours during which the employee is neither working nor on duty. Part time, under British common law, is paid for on the basis of time actually worked."

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The highest minimum wage so far set for any class of female employees in British Columbia is that in the fishing industry in which skill and experience are required and the conditions somewhat trying. The average actual wage was below the legal minimum for an 8-hour day, short hours having been worked. The labour was formerly supplied by Old Country women, but Canadian girls and women, it is stated, are gradually entering the industry. The year's record showed a decrease in the number of inexperienced, with a gain for experienced workers.

The fruit and vegetable industry differs from other industries in being highly seasonal, and no restriction has been fixed as to the length of overtime which may be worked for 90 days in the year, but overtime rates must be paid beyond 48 hours per week.

Orders of Ontario Board Governing Needle Trades.

The Ontario Minimum Wage Board issued during August a series or orders (Nos. 17 to 20) governing female employees in the Needle Trades, which include the making of garments, tents, awnings, flags, and allied machine sewing trades. Previous orders have been

a year of work in the industry. No employee of 18 years or over may be paid less than the rate fixed for inexperienced adults. The number of inexperienced adults or young girls employed in any establishment must not exceed onethird and the number of inexperienced adults and young girls together must not exceed one-half of the total female working force, temporary employees whose term of employment is less than one month, not being included. The foregoing rule does not apply to plants employing four or less female workers. The rule governing piece-workers is that at least 80 per cent of these must receive wages conformable to the order. The piece-work rates may be averaged for any worker provided that the average is maintained at each payment. No deductions below the minimum wage line for absence may exceed the value of the time lost, reckoned in proportion to the normal working hours. An employee who is required to wait on the premises is entitled to be paid for time so spent. The usual penalties for violations of the orders are imposed under Section 22 of the Act, namely, a fine of not more than $500 or less than $50 for each employee affected, the employer being also required to pay to such employee the amount by which her wages fell short of the prescribed minimum. All establishments are required to keep copies of these orders posted in a conspicuous place.

THE annual report of the Depart ment of Labour of British Columbia, recently published, contains full information on the work of the Department in the Province during the calendar year 1921. The annual reports of the Minimum Wage Board and of the Factory Inspector are also included. The report of the Minimum Wage Board is summarized elsewhere in this issue.

The year was one of unsual difficulty owing to the unprecedented amount

of unemployment which continued throughout 1921. This condition is attributed to the collapse of the lumbering industry late in the preceding year, many mills and camps remaining closed. for nearly twelve months. The unemployed workers crowded to the cities of the Province, causing a labour surplus which resulted in a marked reduction in wages. The report states that, as usual in a period of falling wages, there were

To meet the unemployment crisis the Provincial Government decided to assist in carrying out the plan for relief initiated by the Dominion Government, whereby the Dominion contributed onethird of the cost of relief expenditures, provided one-third was provided by the Province and one-third by the municipality concerned. Under this arrangement the initiative rested with the municipalities, the Province having only the power to agree or decline to contribute. In furthering this joint scheme the Province expended $167,850 during the year. Besides this expenditure public Provincial works were carried out to the value of $250,000, most of which sum was paid in wages.

Different methods of unemployment relief were employed in the two main centres of population in the Province. In the first place Vancouver adopted the Dominion Government's scheme, with the result, it is claimed, that the city "quickly became the assembling place for unemployed men from all parts of Western Canada," that is, from centres in which the scheme was not in operation. By the middle of the summer of 1921, 8,200 unemployed persons were registered, about one-half of this number not belonging to the city, and fully 2,000 being from cther western provinces. Various relief works were undertaken, including compulsory clearing of vacant lots at the owners' expense, general city improvements, rock-breaking and wood-cutting. At the middle of April the City Council discontinued special relief works, but employment continued to be found for between 300 to 500 men with families. The dispensing of relief under the joint scheme continued throughout summer, the weekly number of recipients falling below 200 in July and August, and afterwards rising until winter, when a relief camp was opened at Hastings Park. On the other hand, Victoria City Council decided against adopting the Dominion

in attracting to the city many unemployed workers from places outside. Instead, the unemployed were registered, assistance was given in the form of orders for groceries and meat, and relief work provided when available. About 300 men availed themselves of this scheme. In addition the Provincial Government advanced $50,000 to the city to be spent on sewerage work in Saanich Municipality, and on special work in the city, 200 men finding employment on these operations. The cost of providing work for these 500 men and dealing with the unemployment situation in Victoria during the winter of 1920-21 was estimated as under $10,000. "At the end of the winter," the report states, "those administering the affairs of the were still of the opinion that it would have been a mistake to adopt the Dominion Government scheme. They considered that the City Council, by dealing with the situation in its own way, complished better results at much smaller cost."

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The Provincial Government also accepted its share in the revised Dominion relief plan for the winter of 1921-22. Under this plan municipalities paid the normal cost of any necessary public works, while the excess cost resulting from the fact that such work was undertaken at an unsuitable season, was to be shared equally by the Dominion Government, the Province, and the Municipality. (By a later order, on January 25, 1922, the Dominion Government increased its contribution to onehalf of the "cost over normal," the remainder to be shared equally by the other two parties to the arrangements.) Up to the end of 1921, however, no municipalities had commenced operations under the revised scheme, but the earlier plan still remained in effect where the necessary public works could not be undertaken."

In August the Provincial Government summoned representative employers and labour men to a conference, at

The report states that there was an average decrease of 12.34 per cent in the amount of wages paid in 1921 as compared with the previous year, the chief declines being evident in the rates paid in the lumbering, pulp, and and paper, metal mining, coal mining, and building industries. On the other hand the oil refining, coast shipping, and shipyard industries showed increases.

The following table shows the numbers of workers grouped according to the number of working hours each week. No. of 2,226

Under 44 hours per week...
44 hours per week.....
45 to 47 hours per week...
48 hours per week...

13,523

1,351 22,694 584

4,469

693

9,827

754

3,436

220

9,686

29

289

102

300

The report contains a chapter dealing with the work of the Provincial Employ ment Service. "The Employment Service in British Columbia," it is stated, "has steadily strengthened its position in the industrial life of the Province, the system is becoming better known, and hundreds of workmen have been saved large amounts that would have been expended in fruitless journeys."

The total number of workers who obtained employment through the service during the year was 41,744, of whom 34,836 were placed in British Columbia, and 6,908 in other provinces. For the first time the harvest labour problem was handled by the various branches of the Employment Service of Canada.

Another chapter deals with labour disputes in the disputes in the Province during the year. Comparatively few stoppages of work occurred, the most serious dispute being in the printing industry in which there was a strike which lasted for the greater part of the year, the question at issue being a proposed reduction in working hours from 48 to 44 per week. A dispute in the lumber trade at Vancouver had certain unusual features.

Japanese workers who were engaged in the handling, piling and landing of lumber on receiving notice of a reduction in their pay from 30 cents to 25 cents per hour declared a strike, on which, after one day's stoppage, they were replaced by a crew of white men at 36 cents an hour for single men and 40 cents an hour for married men.

The report contains, also, an index of Associations of employers and a labour union directory for the Province.

Report of the Inspector of Factories.

The work of factory inspection in the Province, formerly under the direction of the Department of Public Works, was taken over during 1921 by the Department of Labour, and the annual report on this subject is now included for the first time in the Department's report. A general decrease in the number of accidents is noted, and is attributed to the growing concern of employers for the working conditions and health of their

where females are employed are partiworkers. The conditions in factories cularly good in the Province, it is stated. For the further safeguarding of passen ger elevators the report recommends interlocking device which would prevent that they be equipped with an approved the door being opened before the elevator is level, or nearly so, with the landing, and also to prevent the operation of the car until the door is locked. Employers, it is pointed out, must insist upon the production of a birth certifi cate by juvenile workers, and not merely accept the applicant's statement that he is of the required minimum age.