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The inspection of facfories and machinery was established under an 
act of Althingi 1928, containing various provisions respecting the ar- 
rangement of work, to protect the lives and health of the workpeople, 
and prescribing special care and inspection of steam-boilers and ma- 
chinery, which without strict preventive measures might be dangerous 
to life or detrimental to the health. 
PRICES AND WAGES 
As in other countries, there have in Iceland been enormous changes 
in the level of prices since the outbreak of the Great War; but avail- 
able statistics relate only to the fluctuations of prices in Reykjavik. 
Data concerning retail prices quoted for 50—60 different articles of 
food, fuel and light have, for a number of years, been collected once 
every quarter (and since autumn 1925 once every month) by the Sta- 
tistical Bureau. Index-numbers are then compiled illustrative of the 
fluctuations in the prices of these goods. But another set of index- 
numbers for total cost of living is prepared once a year, in October, 
based on the retail prices ruling in Reykjavik in the beginning of 
that month, and on several additional data respecting other items of 
household expenditure. 
A calculation has been made as fo how the expenditure of an a- 
verage family (consisting of husband, wife and 3 children) with an 
income, in 1914, of 1800 krénur,. was distributed over the various 
commodities consumed. Then, on the basis of an unchanged standard 
of living and guided by continuous statistical information on retail 
prices, the cost of this consumption for the same family at different 
times has been calculated. The household budget is divided into the 
following 6 groups: 1) foodstuffs, 2) light and fuel, 3) clothing, 4) rent, 
5) taxes, 6) sundries. Besides the general index-numbers, special in- 
dex-numbers are worked out for each group. In the case of group 6, 
which accounts for one-fifth of the expenditure, the index-number is 
not based on independent investigations of the fluctuations’ in the 
prices of the goods coming under this head, but the price is assumed 
to have for this group increased proportionately to those of the goods 
included in groups 1—4. According to these calculations the general 
index-numbers, since 1914, have been as follows (July 1914 = 100):