A WORD FOR WORKING WOMEN.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2579, 24 May 1871, Page 2

A WORD FOR WORKING WOMEN.

To the Editor, _ Sir, —In prospect of the Provincial Conn* cil being called together at an ear y date, to deliberate upon measures likely to affect our interests as citiz ns and colonists, I beg you will allow me, through the medium of your influential journal, to suggest to that respon* sible body the desirability of passing au Ait entitled the Dunedin Dressmakers Protects n Act, whereby these poor creatures may be secured the liberties of common mortals, rad prevented from being trampled upon by their employers Alfred the Great must have been pro* foundly ignorant compared with some of our modern Solomons, when he maintained that the division of the day into three parts of eight hours each—eight for work, eight for rest, and eight for healthful recreation—was essential to the happiness and well-being of a people: the rule applied being so vaaly different. If you can imagine about t.veuty g rls cooped up in a single room fron nine o’clock in the morning until about tea and eleven o’clock at night (Saturdays excepted), when, I presume, to allow for preparation, ami in order to enjoy their Sabb'ith rest, they are frequently kept until eleven and sometimes twelve o'clock, you can form some faint idea of the treatment those poor creatures receive at the bauds of their so-called respectable, and shall I add professing Chris* tian, employers. Its oh ! to be a slave, Along with (he barbarous Turk, Where women have no souls to save, If this be Christian work, I sometimes wonder if some of our respectable drapers would like to see their daughters or sisters trudging along the streets through mud and ra re at such unreasonable hours. And yet had they a spark of humanity beating in their breasts, such a sight would be to some exceeding rare. But no ; humanity has given place to selfishness, “a passion which exhibits such an amount of guilt that to exaggerate the evils of it would be no easy task. It has systematised deceit and made it a science. Blood is not too sacred for it to buy, nor religion too divine for it to sell. Aud could its possessors only see it embodied what a monster would they behold ! Its eyes have no tears. With more than the fiftv hands of the fabled giant, it grasps at everything around. While in its march through the world it leaves behind it, dragging heavily its swarms of victims—Humanity b’eeding, Justice in chains, and Religion expiring und* r its heavy burden.” Such prao ices at home (in England and Scotland) have called for the intervention of the Legislature, resulting in the passing of such Acts as the “Factory Act.” I trust, however, Mr. Editor, that those to whom 1 refer will make such a step unnecessary, by extending to those under their employ rights which justice demands and which the laws of England ia simdar instances have enforced. Trusting you will excuse me for occupying so much of your valuable space, I remain A Lover of Justice. May 22, 1871.