THE EFFIGIES. LIFE IN DUNEDIN FACTORIES.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 400, 14 October 1884, Page 5

THE EFFIGIES.

LIFE IN DUNEDIN FACTORIES.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,— When the effigy was suspended at the door of Mr James Beattie, together with the '■' baby," who was accused for the affront ? Who afterwards in th^ town h-Al charged him with a "diabolic lie?" The spectators thought there w.-'S not a sufficiency of water in the Mataur.i, nor enough of Penr's soap to be purchased in his store,, to cleanse sufficiently the hand of the man who made him such an effigy. Yet what do we find I That though there be now a sufficiency of halls for public business in tho township, and ihe scandal of the effigies is still stinking in the nostrils of the public, these two, men are leagued hand an 1 "glove in the back parlor of a public h.ou'se takii.g upon them to move and second the 'formation of t iie township into a borough ! What one ounce of rancid butter can effect ! D<a these effigies think the people pf Gore ' dgn't see through their designs? The one mjght during his leisure ■with advantage go to herd cows; the other should find a useful sphere in looking after hens.— l am, £-c., A Knowing Ratepayer. Gore, 11th Oct., ISSi. P.S.— I beg of strangers not to judge us by our eifigjes.

There has been a meeting in Dimedin regarding proposed amendments in the Factories Act; anil " "Raphael " thus unburdens herself in the 'Star'- I—Afc1 — Afc the meeting, held in the hall oil the D.V.M.C.A. yesterday evening to consider the proposed amendments, to the Factories Act, Mr 0. White suggested that some of the many women present might express their views upon the subject in hand. Of course the invitation cam© very unexpectedly, and accordingly was not responded to. At the same time for myselfthere are a.few things I should like to relieve my mind of, and shall do so in as few \rords as" possible, and if I am anywhere in error I hope some one will set me right. I have no wish to set myself up as a woman's rights advocate in anyway except as the helpmate of man. It is not anyone who is gifted with the power of speech, or I am sure you would have been called upon to listen to some doleful stories last evening — stories of dire hardships and terrible sufferings ; only, unfortunately, the greatest sufferers ' had to remain at home plying the ever lasting needle. Wan and weary, sick and cheerless, By a feeble taper's light, Sat and sang the never tearless, At the dreary dead of night ; The burden of her lay was work, work away, Thro' the night and the day, 'was work, work away I have in my mind's eye at the present moment the picture of a poor mother with her two girls w r ho sometimes .work day and night, and at best are only able to earn little more than their daily bread. For years past they have not been able to purchase one article of clothing, and the poor mother told me, while tears rolled down, her cheeks, that she had only been outside of her own door for her own pleasure twice during the last four years ; and her girls little' more. Yet, of my own knowledge, they had all been roared in the lap of luxury. I do not think that the present hours of working for females should be shortened. Eight hours' labor for fair pay is a fair thing both for employer and employed. ■ Too much liberty is not good for young people of either sex. At the same time! do say that eight hours' work at close sewing is quite long enoxigh, either in the factory or out of it, and all females who have been so employed, either in factories or private houses, should be strictly prohibited from carrying work home to do through the night, as is now but too often the rule. I have often met women and very young girls who work eight hours in the factory and often another eight at home. This ought not to be allowed. Another great objection I have is to little girls doing their own pressing. I have seen Mood-spitting girls running down and up the stairs from the heating stoves, carrying large hot irons, which they told me weighed no less than twenty eight pounds. One little girl in particular I have cause to remember, having nursed her day and night for a considerable time whilst she was under treatment as an outdoor patient at the Hospital for an abscess in the breast caused by working those heavy irons. Her age was barely fourteen years. This was not the only case of the kind I have met with. Another case came under my notice of a young girl said to be dying of inflammation of the brain, a younger sister having died of the same complaint a week or two previous, I did not see the one who died but from the nostrils of the one lying sick I noticed a black discharge with little hard black pellets, which, on. rubbing to pieces on my handerchief, proved to be lint from dark- colored cloth. The mother told me that the other girl had been just the same. "Whilst I was standing by the bedside a third girl came home with her hand badly scalded by holding a red-hot iron beneath the water tap to get it cooled, and in consequence she Jw as unable to work for some weeks. She was the last of the breadwinners for that family. The father belonged to the huge ranks of the unemploj'ed, and was away from home looking for what he could not find, and knew not of his daughter's death. Other young factory girls have died rather suddenly, their deaths being supposed to have been caused by something on the brain.