The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3932, 1 October 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1875.

We were glad to see so many names to (lie requisition for convening a meeting regarding the proposed amendments to the Factory Act, for it is always well that any measure, bearing upon social well-being, should be discussed. We regret that we cannot compliment the meeting on the intelligence with which it was considered. As for Mr Stout he is incorrigible. He will persist in that most inveterate habit ot his, of leaving out half the truth. He is reported to have said Mr Reid’s Bill “ would also make arrangements for work from six o’clock in the morning till six at night.” Candor required that ho should have added, “ but no woman is to work more than eight hours in the twenty-four.” This, however, would not have suited the purposes of Mr Stout and the small fry who took occasion to blow their own trumpets regarding what they had done in the way of emancipating workmen from the cruelty of exacting employers. We have long been convinced that the working classes tyrannise over each other, and fetter each others’ action to a far greater extent than most capitidists 'would ever dream of doing; and

this case only illustrates that position. The proceedings at the meeting were based upon a miscomprehension of the right every one has a claim to, of full liberty of action when no one is in jured by it. The right of the English Parlia meut to legislate on factory management at Homo was based upon the necessity for protecting children and young persons against the tyranny of their own parents, A system hail grown up with the use of machinery of raising large families of children on whose health-destroying labor the cruel parents lived many times in idleness. Their offspring were allowed no time for recreation, no time for school : they grew up weakly, ignorant, and very commonly immoral, and therefore on every ground ot justice and humanity the Legislature interposed between parent and child, and showed that children have natural rights which parents must be compelled to respect. Is there any analogy between the social condition of the factory operatives of that day and our own’/ In this country human labor in factories is restricted to eight hours a-day—that is a most wholesome and healthy arrangement. It is adapted to the requirements of flesh, blood, and brains; it gives employment for each. It is a pity that Messrs Garrick and Sherwix, when their influence proved so powerful, did not extend their sympathies to bankers’ and merchants’ clerks. Perhaps one reason may be that they dress in broadcloth instead of fustian ; and as broadcloth is associated with the idea of capital, it acts on their vision as a reel rag on the eye of a bull. But in factories there arc arms and levers that do not tire. The steam-engines, carding and spinning machines, and jennies can go on doing their appointed work long after muscles are wearied and need rest; and neither Mr Stout' nor his assistants gave one good reason why they should nob be permitted to do so. If, without in the slightest degree infringing the eighthours’ system, one-third more work can bo done by machinery, why should it not be done'? There is nothing unreasonable in choosing or agreeing to 11 o o work between six in the morning and six at night, so long us no more that eight hours’ work is done by the same individual. Just as reasonably might Stout and Company decree that no printers shall work at night on the ‘ Daily [Times ’ or ‘ Guardian ’ papers as that no one shall work as late as six at night at a factory. New Zealand, by such foolish legislation, is tending to restrict the employment of capital in those enterprises that alone can render its people rich and prosperous. Mr Giluies placed the matter in a proper light, but was not listened to, because not understood. The course taken by the meeting, so for as the working men are concerned, was simply suicidal to their progress. Their true interest is to extend production to the utmost; but by imposing restrictions upon manufacturing machinery they limit it to the boundaries of human power. Why not limit the working of a gold mine to eight hours instead of allowing the men to work three shifts of eight hours each I There is greater reason for the one than the other. Mr Heid’s Bill proposes to extend the working hours of machinery so that onethird more people may be employed at the same cost of plant and I outlay of capital. It may, for aught the Soloxs who carried the resolution last night know to the contrary, be the difference between a loss and a profit to the manufacturers. We hope not, but whether or rot, it may be so much lost to the working classes, the company, the Province, and the Colony. It is dictating not only how many hours factory labor shall continue, but how many people shall be employed, and how much per cent, with a given rate of profit investors shall have for their capital. Inducements are hold out on the one hand fer capitalists to establish factories here, and when they do so, the Stouts and Siierwins say you shall not work them to a profit. M ore tyrannical and unreasonable conduct cannot bo conceived.