572 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION F. 



fish curing has increased relatively to the number of men employed. Since the 

 War the grain milling and meat preserving sections of the trade have been 

 especially busy, though in the earlier weeks of the War there was a general 

 depression throughout the trade. The preparation and making up of rations 

 for the troops have led to a considerable increase of female labour in the pre- 

 serving section of the trade, which normally employs a considerable proportion 

 of women. It is a common practice in the trade for the factories to include tin 

 making and paper-bag making departments. The above figures, however, do 

 not include such extra workers, who really belong to another craft, though the 

 state of their employment naturally depends upon the state of this particular 

 trade. The amount of displacement of men by women throughout the industry 

 has been very limited, though it has occurred in certain processes where men 

 were unobtainable, but much of the work is heavy work, and it is doubtful 

 whether it is work in which women can permanently be retained. 



Sugar Confectionery, Fruit Preserving, Chocolate Making, Pickling, iL-c. 



This trade was subject in the early months of the War to a very considerable 

 .shortage in raw material — sugar. The Government, however, came to its 

 rescue, and bought up large supplies, and the trade began to revive in spite of 

 the prohibition of the export of certain of its products. The trade employs a 

 great number of women, who are normally engaged in such processes as picking, 

 cutting, and preparing fruit and pickles. They also handle the machines for 

 weighing and packing tea, coffee, cocoa, confectionery and corn-flour, besides 

 attending the stamping and cutting machines in the tin-making department. 



The trade employs a large proportion of strong and somewhat rough type 

 of women, and though the men's work is heavy a few of the women have since 

 the War been employed on men's work, e.g., in boiling sugar and peel, making 

 sweets, loading and unloading the goods-lifts with tins, and carrying cardboard 

 for packing. 



Boiling sugar and peel is a very arduous task and the heat is excessive — so 

 much so that the women are frequently known to faint. Only the strongest 

 women undertake this work. The wages are low, and the women receive on 

 this process 13.s. to 13s. 9(/. per week, with sometimes a bonus of Is. or 2a'. For 

 the same work the men receive up to 26.s., though their output is consider- 

 ably more than the women's, though probably not as much as the discrepancy 

 in the wages. There is a shortage of skilled male labour, especially in the 

 chocolate branches of the trade. The demand for goods requiring a good deal 

 of women's labour in preparing and packing has been largely displaced by a 

 demand for bulk goods for the Front, in the preparation of which a larger 

 number of men are employed than in the ordinary trade. Where men are 

 unavailable women have been employed, but, although in one large factory at least 

 the results are said to be satisfactory, employers as a whole do not favour this 

 course, as the work is heavy and unsuitable for the majority of women. Women 

 and strong girls have, however, largely taken the place of boys and youths, and 

 they are generally employed at the same wage rates as the youths they have 

 displaced on the following processes : 



Feeding machines with slabs of sugar. 

 Shaking down sugar. 

 Papering cans. 



It has been found, however, that more girls and young women are required 

 than youths — ^sometimes three women to two boys and sometimes two women 

 to one boy. 



In this trade wages are low, and though the work is heavy it is not very 

 skilled and depends very largely upon a fringe of casual male workers from 

 other trades. There is therefore little likelihood of the women being retained 

 after the war. 



Bread and Biscuit Making. 



For some months there has been a shortage of skilled men in bread making, 

 and the scarcity of male labour has made it impossible to employ some women 

 who would otherwise have been employed. A few women from laundries and 



