SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY MOVEMENT.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 422, 19 October 1875, Page 3

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY MOVEMENT.

A largely attended meeting of tradesmen and others, called by requisition, was held last evening in the Music Hall, with a view to arriving at some arrangement, to be submitted to employers, for obtaining a halfholiday on Saturdays. The chair was taken by his Worship the Mayor. The chairman, after reading the advertisement calling the meeting, said he had been waited on by a member of the building trade, and requested to preside at that meeting, and he need hardly say that he felt very great pleasure in complying with the request, as the Saturday half-holiday movement had always had his warmest sympathy. [Applause.J He would now call on some gentleman to move the first resolution. Mr D. Reese, builder, came forward amid loud applause, and having dwelt on the advantages that would be derived, not only by the different tradesmen, but by all the working classes, if the Saturday half-holiday became an institution throughout the province, moved the followiDg resolution — " That it is the opinion of this meeting that all the building trades and others interested in the Saturday half-holiday shall stop work at 12 o'clock on Saturday, without increasing the hours of labor during the other days of the week to more than eight hours per day." Mr Dixey seconded the motion. Mr J. Anderson, junr, moved as an amendment—" That the forty-eight hours' work per week be continued." He was certain it would tell very heavily on the man with a large family if the hours of labor were lessened, and as a Decessaiy consequence the wages, were reduced. He was a representative of a firm which worked five and a half hours on the Saturday, but this lengthened time on the latter day he hardly agreed with, and believed a better arrangement could be come to by commencing earlier in the morning during the other days of the week. [Disapprobation.] He thanked them for that expression, and though feeling the meeting was against him, he conscientiously expressed his opinion that the present movement would fall very heavily on any man with a large family. Mr Lee spoke at length against the resolution, and argued that it was only a stepping Btone to have men work nine or ten hours per day. A gentleman, who said he was a plasterer, regretted that more of his trade were not present to represent his society. The speaker then related his experiences of membership with the society in relation to working hours, which created much amusement. Were he an employer, he would say to his men that if they didn't work eight hours a day he would knock off 2s- per day, and it was his opinion that any man voting for less than eight hours' work each day would be doing himself wrong. [Loud applause.] The Chairman said he had just had a slip of paper placed in his hands, signed by Mr W. Duncan, saying that Mr Twentyman, in reply to a requisition sent him, had stated his inability to attend the meeting, but his sympathies were entirely with the movement. | Cheers.] A gentleman in the gallery desired to second the amendment, and said that in Mr Goss's employ (id which he was) they had adopted a system of going to work at a quarter to eight in the morning, which allowed them to have a half holiday on Saturday without compelling the men to work over the 4.8 hours a week. [ Hisses.] The speaker, amid considerable disapprobation and the appeals of the chairman to tho

meeting, attempted to advocate a trial of the plan adopted by himself and fellow employees, but cou'd not obtain a hearing. Mr W. J. Jones considered that, rs he was a joiner and practical mechanic—[lau»hte-] —he, with his fellow tradesmen, knew that eight hours per day was quite sufficient for them—("hear, hear | —and if they sacrificed any portion of those hours it was their own look-out. [Oheers.J There was one thing he would like to impress upon all employers present, and that was to pay their men in cash. [Loud and prolonged cheering.] Mr Wady said that a requisition had been sent round to the different tradesmen before the meeting was called. This had been signed in approval by the bulk of those to whom it had been shown, and he hoped the resolution would be carried. Several other speakers addressed the meeting in favor of the resolution, one gentleman reading an extract from a letter written by Mr Twentyman, suggesting that if the resolution were carried the employers would see the advisableness of paying their men on Thursday or Friday, so as to allow of them taking their money home to their wives, and thus enable them to shop early on Saturday. [Applause.] Mr Williams desired to say a few words, and supported the motion warmly. He was glad to see that the action taken by the carpenters' society some three years ago was now about to culminate in a success. He felt that one great argument in favor of the half-holiday movement was that at least one tradesman more in twelve would be employed. The chairman put Mr Anderson's amendment, which was lost, and the resolution declared to be carried almost unanimously. The chairman said he had been requested to state that about £6 had been incurred in the expense of calling the present meeting, and subscriptions to defray that expense would be received by a gentleman at the table.

A hearty vote of thanks having been unanimously passed to the chairman, the meeting dispersed.