Paso 2.3 Medición

work of road, railway and earthwork construction was particularly high. In

1 92 1 ,

23.82 per cent of those involved i n roading were Catholics and in 1 936 Catholics

accounted for

1 8.62 per cent.143 Among land drainage and irrigation workers, 26.40

per cent were Catholics in

192 1 and 22.34 per cent in 1936.144

In

192 1 ,

Catholic men were notably over-represented in transport and

communication

( 15.67

per cent). They were markedly under-represented among

employers in this occupational category

(10.26

per cent) and somewhat under­

represented among the self-employed

(12.79

per cent). The great majority of Catholics

involved in transport and communication

(7,43 1)

were wage and salary earners,

making up

1 6.00

per cent of the male workforce in this area.

Many of these men worked for the government, particularly in the railway and

postal services, which explains why so many of them were employees.

In 1921 ,

when

the census enumerator included employees of the Post Office Savings Bank: in the

number of postal service workers, Catholic men were not as over-represented

(14.46

per cent) as they were in the

1936

figures

( 15.37

per cent) which excluded employees

of the Post Office Savings Bank:. Since the categories in these two years are not the same, the percentages cannot be taken as certain evidence of an increase in the proportion of Catholics working in the postal service. There is better evidence for an increase in the already high proportion of Catholics working in the telegraph and

telephone service. The

192 1

census counted

3,872

men working in the telegraph and

telephone service (of whom

599

or

15.47

per cent were Catholics) as well as

1 ,682

"undefined" postal, telegraph or telephone officers (including

237

or

14. 10

per cent

Catholics). In

1936,

there were

4,600

men in the telegraph, cable and telephone

service (of whom

756

or

16.43

per cent were Catholics) and only

905

working in

postal and telegraph services "not otherwise designated" - of whom an indeterminable proportion were Catholics. 145 There was a marked but declining over-representation of

143 The 1936 total ( 1 1 ,480, of whom 2,138 were Catholics) is much higher than the 1921 figure (4,949, including 1,179 Catholics) and no doubt includes a substantial number of relief workers.

144 The increase from 875 workers (including 23 1 Catholics) in 1921 to 1,719 (including 384 Catholics) in 1936 evidently reflects the growth of government work schemes.

145 NZ Census, 1936, vol. X, p. 9. Since the "undefined" category was much smaller in 1936, it seems likely that it was partially absorbed into the more specific postal and telegraph categories, thus reducing the comparability of the 1921 and 1936 figures. However, even though the proportion of Catholics in the "undefmed" figure for 1921 was lower than in either the postal or telegraph figures

· . _'. ___ ••. __ ._M ··�·

40 Chapter One: A People Apan?

Catholic men in the railway service

( 17.88

per cent in

192 1

and

16.07

per cent in

1936).

The railways offered work to large numbers of unskilled men and it seems

quite possible that the high proportion of Catholics in the interwar period was made up of descendants of the assisted Irish immigrants brought to New Zealand for public

works in the

1 870s.

Among those engaged in the "loading and discharging of vessels", there was a very

considerable over-representation of Catholics in

192 1 ( 1 8.62

per cent) but this had

declined by

1936 ( 1 6.5 1

per cent)}46 There was also an over-representation of

Catholic men in the shipping service

(14.97

per cent in

192 1

and

14.79

per cent in

1936). An

over-representation of Catholic men engaged by harbour boards in

1921

( 14.27

per cent) was reduced to an under-representation by

1936 ( 1 1 .23

per cent),

perhaps because the considerable reduction in personnel (from

2,404

to

1 ,264)

had

most impact on unskilled employees.147 In the tramway service - also largely controlled by local bodies - there was no over-representation of Catholic men

comparable to the large proportion of Catholics in the government-controlled railways. This was a much smaller occupational category, requiring proportionately fewer

unskilled personnel, but the percentage of Catholics

(12.40

in

192 1

and

1 1 .24

in

1936)

showed some decline, perhaps again a reflection of economic conditions having a greater impact on the unskilled. 148 The over-representation of Catholics engaged in

carrying and cartage

(1 5.29

per cent in

192 1 )

was reduced to approximately the same

proportion

(12.34

per cent) as Catholic men in the overall workforce by

1936,

presumably because the replacement of horses and carts with trucks required a greater

capital investment.

In 1936,

there was a high proportion of Catholic men employed in

(Footnote continued from previous page.)

for that year, its absorption into those categories in 1936 (if it occurred) did not prevent the proportion of Catholics counted as working in postal and telegraph services from increasing.

146 Of the 5,447 men in this group in 1921, 4,965 were designated as watersiders (NZ Census, 1921,

part VIII, p. 71).

147 The occupations of harbour board employees included a high proportion of unskilled jobs (NZ Census, 1921, part VIII, p. 72).

148 The proportions of Catholic men employed in gasworks - another local body concern -(12.25 per cent in 1921 and 1 3.80 per cent in 1936) was close to the proportion of Catholics in the male workforce, although showing some increase between the censuses. A smaller and remarkably consistent proportion of Catholics was to be found among the increasing numbers of men engaged in electricity generation and supply: 1 1 .08 per cent in 1921 and 1 l .07 in 1936.

Employment Patterns 41

taxi services

( 15.60

per cent) but an under-representation in the skilled work of motor­

garages

(10.42

per cent). 149

Catholic men were markedly under-represented in commercial and fmancial

occupations at

9.82

per cent in

192 1 .

They were considerably under-represented

among commercial employers

(6.82

per cent) but not among the self-employed

( 1 0.61

per cent). Given the under-representation of Catholic men in commerce - a relatively

large number of them

(709)

operated their own small businesses without employing

assistants and a rather smaller number

(5 1 1)

owned more substantial enterprises. At

the same time, Catholic men were over-represented among wage and salary earners

( 10.20

per cent) working in commerce .

. There were comparatively low proportions of Catholic men involved in

occupations dealing with finance. Only

8. 15

per cent of men described as capitalists or proprietors of houses and land in

1921

were Catholics. A low proportion of men employed in banking were Catholics

(9. 1 3

per cent in

192 1

and

7.84

per cent in

1 936 -

though the figures are not quite comparable because the former includes, while the latter excludes, employees of the Post Office Savings Bank.lso Catholic men were also under-represented in insurance

(10.00

per cent in

192 1

and

9.94

per cent of "all

classes" of insurance in

1936)

and as stock and station agents

(9.82

per cent in

1936).

The proportion of Catholic men involved in selling goods also tended to be quite low. Among the large number (4,466) of "manufacturer's agents, merchants, indent agents, or importers" in

1936, only 8.78 per cent were Catholics. Even in small

businesses requiring one's own capital investment, such as the sale of hardware and machinery

(8.37

per cent and 8.05 per cent), and of textiles and clothing (9.73 per cent and

10.44 per cent), Catholics were under-represented.

In two kinds of commercial enterprise, Catholics were still under-represented in comparison with the total workforce, but not with respect to commercial activities as such. Among the more widespread and less capital intensive small shops, the under­ representation of Catholics was less extreme. Catholics accounted for

10.5 1

per cent of those involved in selling groceries and provisions in

192 1

and

1 1 .50

per cent in

1936

while

1 1 .52

per cent of butchers in

1921

and

1 1 .49

per cent in

1936

were

149 The 1921 census report combined these two occupations, giving an aggregate proportion of 1 1 .37

per cent. little different from the 1936 aggregate of 1 1 .66 per cent - a typical case of the way in which the consolidation of employment categories conceals significant differences between skilled and unskilled occupations.

42

Chapter One: A People Apart?

Catholics. Secondly, commercial activities involving significant numbers of workers with limited skills or training also attracted comparatively more Catholics, such as the sale of horses and livestock

(10.29

per cent in

1921 ),

of coal and firewood

( 12.45

per cent in

1921

and

10.5 1

per cent in

1936)

and of timber

( 1 1 .70

per cent and

10.83

per cent). Similarly, Catholic men were less under-represented in department and general stores

( 10.04

per cent in

1921

and

1 1 .06

per cent in

1936)

and most of the Catholics working in such enterprises were presumably waged employees. IS I

Catholics were slightly over-represented among professional men in

192 1 ,

accounting for

13.13

per cent of them. These professional Catholics, however, were notably under-represented among employers of others

(8.89

per cent) and the self­ employed

(9. 1 5

per cent) and were correspondingly over-represented in the very much larger category of wage and salary earners

( 13.55

per cent). Of the

289

men to whom these occupational status categories did not apply,

132

or

45.67

per cent were

Catholics - a proportion evidently swelled by the inclusion of lay brothers. 152 The high proportions of Catholic "professional" men among employees and the low proportions among employers reflect the tendency of these men to work for the government rather than the private sector.

At first sight the relatively high proportion of Catholic professional men may appear to conflict with the impression built up so far of a comparatively unskilled Catholic workforce. If, following the proportion of Catholics in the total male

workforce,

1 2.89

per cent of the

29,803

"professionals" in

192 1

were Catholics,

however, there would be

3,842

of them: a mere

70

fewer Catholic men than there were

in fact

(3,91 2).

The "professional" category, moreover, included not only clerks and

several occupations which could be entered with a minimum of formal qualifications

(such as the police force and the army) but also labourers and other unskilled persons

who worked in such industries

as

government and health.lS3 At

14. 1 2

per cent in

1 92 1

and

1 3.72

per cent in

1936,

Catholics were over-represented among "general

1 5 1 The number of men employed in these stores declined from 7,122 (715 Catholics) in 1921 to 2.766 (306 Catholics) in 1936, perbaps reflecting economic conditions or a change in the method of calculating this category - the number of manufacturers' agents etc. increased by a comparable number.

1 52 There were over 60 brothers in New Zealand in 1921. most of them school teachers (but effectively unpaid) and therefore classified as professional (ACD. 1922. p. 253).

153 It should be recalled the statistics on religion and employment record the industries in which people worked rather than their actual occupations. For breakdowns of the total "professional" category according to the personal occupations of those associated with it. see NZ Census. 1921, part VITI.

Employment PaUerns 43 government administrative officers and others not elsewhere included". Among the

3,365

men thus classified in

192 1 ,

there were

1 ,305

clerks,

335

labourers,

1 30

messengers,

45

night watchmen and

45

storemen.154 In

192 1 ,

there was a considerable

over-representation of Catholics among "local government administrative officers and

others"

( 16.84

per cent) but this declined (to

1 2.86

per cent) in

1 936.

The total figure

for all religious groups in

1921 (4,269)

included

1 ,901

labourers - the latter no doubt

including a high proportion of Catholics. 155

There was a marked over-representation of Catholics in the police force, of which they constituted

30.53

per cent in

192 1 ,

falling to

22.06

per cent in

1936.

The police force offered an attractive career to respectable and ambitious but unskilled young men from humble origins. Before

1 92 1 ,

the high proportion of Catholics in the force had already declined considerably: an

1 898

Royal Commission found that

4 1 .6

per cent of policemen were Catholics. This over-representation was attributed to recruitment from the Royal Irish Constabulary - a practice which seems to have led to an over­

representation of Presbyterians as well. 156 Commissioner John Cullen, already mentioned in the discussion of ethnicity, was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary for six years before coming to New Zealand in

1 876.157

Cullen's

successor, John O'Donovan - another Catholic - advertised in the

Tablet

for recruits.158 After his retirement in

1922,

there may have been a policy of reducing the intake of Catholics.159 In O'Donovan's last year,

34

of the

147

new officers

(23

per cent) were Catholics, but the following year, only seven out of

75

new policemen

(9

per cent) were Catholics.l60 The actual number of Catholics in the force declined from

290

in

1921

to

276

in

1936,

even though the total force increased from

950

to

1 ,25 1

men in

154 There were also 189 cadets, a number of people in small categories and 826 "others" (NZ Census,

1921, part VIII, p. 89). Comparable statistics for 1936 do not appear to be available.

1 55 NZ Census, 1921, part VIII, p. 89. Since they include so many labourers, these central and local

government figures cannot be used to demonstrate a Catholic penchant for clerical work: as J.

Watson, "Were Catholics Over-Represented in the Public Service During the Early Twentieth

Century?" Political Science, 4212 (December 1990), p. 31 assumed.

156 "Report and Evidence of the Royal Commission on the Police Force of New Zealand", AJHR, H.-2,

1898, p. viii. For further discussion, see Watson, pp. 3 1 -32.

1 57 NZ Tablet, 8 November 1939, p. 8.

158 NZ _{Tablet, 27 March 1919, p. 23; 3 April 1919, p. 9; 21 October 1920, p. 35.}

1 59 See NZ Tablet, 18 May 1922, p. 21 and 28 December 1922, p. 43 for O'Donovan's retirement and a

trip to "the Old Country".

160 Annual Police Repo

rts

, AJHR, 1922, vol. II, H.-16, p. 5; 1923, vol. n, H.-16, p. 6. The proportions in the preceding and subsequent years are consistent with this interpretation.

44 Chapter One: A People Apan? the same fifteen years. Meanwhile the over-representation of Presbyterians actually increased.161

In

professional occupations requiring higher education or training, Catholics were notably under-represented. Only

7.99

per cent of civil engineers, surveyors and architects were Catholics in

192 1

and Catholics made up only a small proportion of public accountants

(5.62

per cent in

192 1

and

6.67

per cent in

1936).

Again, only

8.06

per cent of male school teachers were Catholics in

192 1

and

8.49

per cent in

1 936,

while a mere

6.96

per cent of technical and other teachers were Catholics in

192 1 .

The medical and dental professions employed few Catholics:

4.83

per cent and

7.53

per cent respectively in

192 1

(both figures relate only to private practice). Public hospital staff members were

12.4 1

per cent Catholic in

192 1 ,

but most of those included in this category were not medical personnel. 162 The under-representation of Catholics was less pronounced in the legal profession, although the proportion of Catholics there declined from

1 1 .06

per cent in

192 1

to

9.44

per cent in

1936

and by no means all those represented in these percentages were qualified lawyers.163 That Catholics were less under-represented in law than in other learned professions may owe something to experience in the police force and to Catholic secondary education, which inclined towards the academic rather than the commercial or technical. 164

Occupations classified as "professional" but employing large numbers of unskilled men attracted a greater share of Catholics. The growing number of picture theatres employed an increasing proportion of Catholics

( 12.57

per cent in

192 1

and

1 6.67

per cent in

1936).

There was also a considerable over-representation of Catholics in horse­ racing

(22.76

per cent in

192 1

and

2 1 .95

per cent in

1936).

To an important degree this must be explained in terms of the popularity of horse-racing among the Irish and their descendants in New Zealand - and to disapproval of gambling among many Protestants. 165

The proportion of Catholic men in occupations classified as domestic in

192 1 was

1 9.76 per cent, a considerable over-representation. A very high proportion of male

employers in such work were Catholics (25.83 per cent), although only

14.54 per cent

161 _{Watson, p. 30.}

162 Only 87 out of 1,267 were doctors (NZ Census, 1921, part VIII, p. 93).

163 The figures for accountancy and law are commensurate with those already cited for Catholic involvement in occupations concerned with fmance.

164 See the discussion of Catholic education in chapter three below and Watson, pp. 3 1 -32. 1 65 See the discussion of leisure in chapter four.

Employment Patterns 45

of the self-employed (a much smaller group than the employers) were Catholics. Conversely, male Catholic domestic workers receiving wages and salaries were

slightly under-represented

( 19. 1 6

per cent) as a proportion of domestic workers.

Licensed hoteliers largely account for the over-representation of Catholic men (and of Catholic employers in particular) in domestic occupations. Like horse-racing,

maintaining a licensed hotel was a traditional Irish occupation and more likely to meet

approval among Catholics than some Protestants. In

192 1 , 27.64

per cent of the men

working in licensed hotels were Catholics and in

1936

the proportion was still

27.49

per cent. The much smaller but related occupation of working in private hotels and boarding houses also had an over-representation of Catholics, albeit a much lesser one

( 14.67

per cent in

1921).

Most of the men in the

192 1

"other groups" category of Table

8.8

and in the almost

equivalent "no industry, or industry not specified" category in Table

8. 14

were either

retired or waged employees. l66 Among the men who failed to indicate the industry to which they belonged,167 there were very few employers, self-employed men or relatives assisting without wages; indeed the total numbers involved were so low that the proportions of Catholics cannot be regarded as particularly significant.

In

192 1 ,

there was a considerable over-representation of Catholic men among those who either did not specify their industry or were not involved in one

( 18.20

per cent) - an over-representat

�

on which is best understood in the light of the high proportion of labourers it included. 168 Catholics were again markedly over-represented among labourers who did not indicate their industry in

1936 ( 1 8.40

per cent) and among the typists and clerks who also failed to specify their industry in that year

( 15.42

per cent). There was also an over-representation of Catholics among the unemployed who did not specify their industry in

1936 (16.23

per cent) - perhaps because they lacked-any vocational skills.

166 Since the great majority of workers in this category were labourers, typists or clerks, it may be

assumed that they were wage rather than salary earners.

1 67 Occupational status categories such as those used in Table 8.8 would not be applicable to pensioners and while it is conceivable that a few men of independent means were classed as employers, it seems more likely that they too were included under "not applicable". Consequently it seems j ustified to assume that men counted in other categories bad simply failed to indicate their industry on the census fOrID.

1 68 Of 10,452 men who failed to indicate their industry, 7,207 were labourers (NZ Census, 1921, part VIll, p. 1 04).

46 Chapter One: A People Apart? According

to

the

1936

census, there were

8,101

men (including

1 ,204

Catholics) receiving pensions in April of that year. 169 Fewer than half of these men

(3,495)

were old age pensioners170 and the census figures for men and women receiving pensions are far below the official numbers.l7l Despite the anomalies in these statistics, it is tempting to suggest that, in view of the high proportions of Catholic men on pensions in the census figures

( 1 4.86

per cent of men at a time when Catholic men made up only

10.86

per cent of the population aged sixty-five and older)l72 and the income

restrictions which rendered most elderly people ineligible to receive pensions from the state, Catholics were in greater need, especially during their old age. This impression is confirmed by the under-representation of Catholic men among the much larger population

(29,066)

of men designated simply as "retired"

(9. 8 1

per cent or

2,850

individuals).

By comparison with women in the other large denominations and with the female population as a whole, Catholic women were more likely to be in paid employment Assuming that almost all working women were aged between fifteen and sixty-four years of age, this difference can be demonstrated in several ways, as seen in Table

1 .4.

Only among Catholics was the proportion of women in the workforce consistently higher (by over two per cent) than the proportion of women in the fifteen to sixty-four age bracket. Another way of comparing the denominations is to express the number of workers in each church as a proportion of the number of women of working age. Whereas

34.27 per c

_ent of eligible Catholic women were working in

192 1 and 32.7 1

per cent in

1936, in the other denominations and in the total population, fewer than 30

In document Unidades didácticas para el aprendizaje de sistemas operativos y bases de datos (página 63-75)