A MILLHAND AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 12

A MILLHAND AGAIN

HOME SECRETARY AMAZES OPERATIVES MR. CLYNES AT WORK Mr. J. R. Clynes, the Home Secretary, made an unexpected appearance in a mill at Hollingwood, near Oldham, his native town, and for a few minutes took up his boyhood occupation as a piecer. With deft fingers, the Home Secretary performed the work ascribed to that position which became familiar to him when as a boy of ten Tie worked in an Oldham mill. The operatives stood by and watched in astonishment his prowess in the delicate operation. It was made known to the mill-ownd'rs that the distinguished visitor is the chairman of the Government inquiry into the condition of the cotton trade, and that he was with charac :eristic thoroughness merely trying to familiarisfe himself with the conditions which were so much a part of his life as a small boy of an impoverished family thirty-eight years ago. When he Made 2s 6d a Week Mr. Clynes afterward stated that when he started work at the age of ten in a mill not far away he was paid 2s 6d a week, and remained on that pay until he became a big piecer at the age of sixteen. Afterward Tie worked B at different mills and in the very few leisure hours left to him ho sought what education he could at ffisht schools and in reading at home. Summing up his impressions, he said that all the conditions in the mills seomed very much better than in the days of his youth.