HOURS OF LABOUR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2184, 27 July 1889, Page 3

HOURS OF LABOUR.

The Rev J, «*. Hill, of Auck'and, who han shown groat interest m tbo pocial problems of the day, m a recunt addrcsr on " Weal hand Wagf b," took for a peg on which to hunt; his remarks " Hunger knows no Law " fie had himself, he said, been on the verge of starvation for six weeks, and knew from painful experienoe what thos« wordn meant. If law was to be vi heM they mußt abolieh hanger. The rate of w«ges was ■determine! by the oost f living. In t c thirteenth oeotnry Englishmen were, n tbe level of the Chin^eo, and earning l£d per day. At the preu<-' t day the labor of six Engliahmen w b equal to the labor of twenty four Fronchmnn, thirty-two Aus trlans, or eigh'y-four Portuguese. He h«d not been able to find the number no far as Chinamen were concerned. It was the greater use of manMnery which m Hp the Eng'iehman 1 * la'Oor worth so natoh more, and had enabled tbe wo.'kmg olaaees to obtain shorter hours and higher pay, anJ therefore better living. It would be, necessary to legis ate for the restriction of tbe hours of labor aid of trading. Ho ott«d t c benefio al effcots of the pissing ot the Factories Act m Enghi,d m increasing wages, while it decreased the bpufa of labor, and at tbe Bame time show d from statist cs that the peop'e had gown m intelligence and comfort In Eog and they hid nonr 0 JNiue and a-half Houraßill, bat wha 1 would bo tbe effect of an Eight Hours Bill ? Its immediate effect woald be to create a demand for tbe labor of 1,631 672 men m addi ion to thone now employed. He lad not had tlrao to ca cu'ate the reiult of a similar law m New Ze iland ; b t It woald aseurediy provi> most benefioial, ■