Hans,
guess I didn't explain wel enough. Using Wolfgang's

TABLE module

\bTABLE
\bTABLEhead
\bTR
\bTH Group \eTH \bTH N \eTH \bTH MEAN \eTH \bTH STD \eTH \bTH MIN \eTH \bTH MAX \eTH \bTH Gini \eTH \bTH 80/20 \eTH
\eTR
\eTABLEhead
\bTABLEbody
\bTR \bTC[nc=8] 1980 \eTC \eTR
.
..
.
lots and lots and lots or rows
.
...
.
\eTABLEbody
\bTABLEfoot
\bTR \bTC[nc=8]*\$=New Taiwan Dollars \eTC \eTR
\eTABLEfoot
\eTABLE\eTABLEbody
\bTABLEfoot
\bTR \bTC[nc=8]*\$=New Taiwan Dollars \eTC \eTR
\eTABLEfoot
\eTABLE

all works fine

but when I add:

\placetable[here][tab:five]{Descriptive Statistics for Salaried Men \& Women}
{

in order to get reference, caption I lose the split and so the tables just runs OFF the end of the page

suggestions PLEASE

barney