The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1882. The Eight Hours’ System.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 627, 4 May 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1882. The Eight Hours’ System.

TOWN EDITION.

[.lssued at 5.40 p.m. j

The present agitation for the eight hours’ system in this colony is a step in the right direction, and deserving of the cordial support of every right-thinking and liberai minded employer of labor. The effect of all work and no play is not merely to render Jack a dull boy, but to tap his energy and impair his usefulness. The employer of labor who is keenly alive to bis own interest will, in this matter of labor, study that of his servant. As Mr Bracken pointed out in Dunedin the other night, at a meeting convened by the Trades and Labor Council for the purpose of furthering the movement to legalise the eight hours system of labor—

It was recognised by every one who gave the subject the slighlest consideration that a man employed at hard labor could accomplish a better day’s work in eight than in a greater number of hours. The reason of this was obvious. He went to his work with a cheerful spirit, and he labored with a right good will, because he knew that when his day’s toil was ended he had ample time at his disposal for rational recreation and mental improvement.— (Applause.) On the other hand, the man who toiled ten or twelve hours went home, tired and weary, and in no humor for reading or recreation. He went to his work in the morning in a spiritless fashion, and toiled like a mere machine, and the chances were he neither did justice to himself or his employer. Several other speakers followed in the same strain, and the arguments adduced in favor of the movement were powerful enough to convince its most determined opponent. The cause of many of those engaged in the dailystruggle for bread is one that imperatively demands attention. The hours which many shopmen, (or shopwomen), clerks, tradesmen, and young children, are made to work under the existing system are terribly long, and can only be attended with results deplorable in the extreme. The eight hours’ system, which was only introduced in Victoria after a long and bitter struggle, is now working most satisfactorily. Fcr the sake of the thousands of toilers in shops, offices, workrooms, and warehouses, to say nothing of linemen, postmen, policemen, and other employees by the Government, we trust that the eight hours’ system will ere long become legally recognised in New Zealand.