WORKING CONDITIONS IN FACTORIES. 69 
latter case, the infrequency of prosecutions appears to reflect the policy of 
the provincial Government. We found no reason for believing that 
conditions in Bihar and Orissa, as compared with other provinces, justified 
particular leniency in the matter of the administration of the Act, and we 
recommend that in this province greater rigour be shown in the future 
in'this respect. In some provinces the Chief Inspector of Factories 
is subordinated to the Director of Industries. We consider this an un- 
desirable arrangement, as the Director of Industries is naturally expected 
by employers to assist them to the utmost of his ability. The factory 
inspection staff, on the other hand, exists primarily for the protection of 
labour. While it is not desired to reflect in any way on the manner in 
which Directors of Industries have carried out the difficult duty imposed 
on them, we think that this duty should be transferred to an authority 
more independent of employers. We discuss the appropriate authority 
in a later chapter, but we should add here that the system of giving the 
Director of Industries responsibility for factory administration does not 
prevail in any of the three Presidencies or in Burma (where there is no 
Director) and these provinces contain the great majority of the factories. 
We understand that, in some cases, control is or has been exercised over the 
Chief Inspector of Factories in the matter of individual prosecutions. 
We recognise that the executive government must retain the power to 
lay down broad lines of policy ; but we desire to emphasise the fact 
that, if an officer is fit to fill the responsible post of Chief Inspector, he 
must be fit to decide generally when a prosecution is required. In any 
case it is most important that he should not be required to submit pro- 
posals for individual prosecutions to another authority. 
Part-time Inspectors. 
In addition to the regular factory inspection staff, with which we 
have been dealing in the preceding paragraphs, there ave many other 
officers who exercise powers as Inspectors of Factories. All District 
Magistrates are ex-officio inspectors. In addition, local Governments 
have empowered various other officers as inspectors, including a number 
of sub-divisional and other magistrates, and, more rarely, medical officers. 
On occasion, a few of these officials have displayed some energy in factory 
inspection, but, generally speaking, the amount of assistance given by them 
to factory administration has been small, and such work as they do is not 
always well directed. So far as non-technical officers are concerned, we 
believe that it is generally a waste of time for them to attempt inspections 
in perennial factories. It is occasionally possible for them to save the 
time of a regular inspector by visits to small factories lying far from im- 
portant lines of communication ; but ordinarily the adequate inspection 
of a perennial factory requires expert technical knowledge. On the other 
band we consider that, if new methods are adopted, part-time officers 
could do most valuable work in connection with seasonal factories, and 
we develop this point in the chapter dealing with these. In the 
meantime, it is sufficient to observe that, in estimating the staff required 
for the inspection of perennial factories, the contribution that can be made 
by such officers must be ionored.