CURRENT TOPICS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 441, 29 January 1890, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

(By Zamiel in the ‘ Auckland Star.” Every movement for the social welfare of the army of toilers who constitute the work ing portion of the community command' my sympathy, and I must confess that j have watched tha renewal of interest in the question of early closing with a strong hope that the agitation may on this occasion b e successful. Earlier closing! What a world of meaning there is in those two words for the poor girl whos® shop drudgery commences at _ eight o’clock in the morning and ends at eight at night. They mean to her regular rest and an occasional hope for recreation, and these are at present withheld from her by good men and women who would shudder to work a horse for twelve hours at a stretch, but who fail to comprehend that a girl on her feet behind a counter all day is ever tired. They have a delightful meaning also for the male shop assistant, whose smile must be ever on his face, oven though he welcomes the very customers who are keeping him beyond his allotted twelve .or thirteen hours of labour. They give him promise of an evening now and again in his own home circle, enjoying the pleasant companionship of his wife and little ones. Under the present system of white slavery, he seldom can spend an evening in their society, and small wonder if his younger children know him almost as a stranger, whose face they never see except on a Sunday-

“ Gross exaggeration ” is, no doubt, th e verdict of my lady of ease and leisure ; o r perhaps her husband, whose hours of business are few, though his cares be many, lazily turns in his lounge and ejaculates “Bosh.” But it is not bosh. White slavery is the most fitting phrase to describe the condition of shop assistants in our suburbs, and the pity is that the public will not recognise and deal with the evil. There are men in Karangahape Road who are at work day after day from eight in the morning till nine at night, with an additional two hours on Saturday by way of preparation for the Sabbath. Shame on the employers and the public that it is so. One effort after another has been made to awaken the people to a consciousness of the wrong that is being done, but hitherto these endeavours have been wholly abortive. Now, however, the Knights of Labour have taken the matter up, and I believe promises are being given by citizens in all directions that they will buy neither by night nor by day from shopkeepers who trade at night. This is as it should be. *** * * * * * * The movement is attracting much notice on all hands, and it is to be hoped that it .is not a feverish burst, but that those in the van will keep the pressure up and make early closing a reality and not a name. To effect this object they must get all the shopkeepers to take a firm stand and refuse to open their shops after the hour decided on. And if shopkeepers only thought for a moment they would see that the matter lies pretty well in their own hands, and that they cannot lose by enforcing the rule of early closing. People must have their necessary goods, and if the shopkeeper says, “You must get those goods before six o’clock,” then get them they must. *7f *s* If? *X* “A- ft * * * One great obstacle to the movement is the habit a large number of the public have of dropping into the street after dark to look at the shops and buy any little things they may require. These are mostly working men and their families, who would be up in arms if there was the least attempt to interfere with their “ eight hours system.” And if anybody did attempt to interfere •with that system I should be delighted to see them up in arms, and should assist them to the best of my ability. But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that they are very callous where other people's eight hours system is concerned. They look on quite calmly to see shopkeepers and their assistants working 12, 14, or 16 hours a day, and never think that they are largely to blame for such overwork. They should remember that these also are working men and working women, and that they have the same rights as other workers. But they don’t—they stroll down the street'at 8 or 9 p.m.,oreven 10 and 11, to buy their goods, thus forcing the shopkeepers to keep open to that hour. And if one shop is not open regularly for him at whatever hour he pleases, he takes his custom elswhere to punish the man who won’t work sixteen hours a day. Surely working men ought to have sufficient sympathy for their fellows, to assist them in their efforts to get better conditions of toil. Rather let them take their custom from the shopkeeper who is so untrue to his fellows as to keep open late.

It is always advisable to know your man when you speak to strangers by the way. An instance showing the necessity for being careful in this respect occurred one day this week. It happened that as a ’bus was coming in from Onehunga two young bloods were sitting in front with the driver, and next them was a quietlooking middle-aged man. Some little distance out from the township a lady with a little boy hailed the 'bus, which promptly drew up. The little fellow was somewhat slow in following his mother, and at length the lady turned round and gave him a jerk by the arm, such as only lovely woman can when a little excited. The boy also received an energetic push to assist him up the steps of the ’bus. The young fellows on the box enjoyed the fun more than the child, and for the next few minutes exercised their wit by laconic remarks regarding the angelic nature manifestly possessed by the lady. One remarked with a cynical smile that her husband should be a happy man, and the other wished he could find a young girl like her in temperament, and so the fun continued,much to the amusement of themselves and the driver. Meanwhile, the man on the outside said never a word, but steadily smoked his pipe. At length the ’busstoppedand the lady and child alighted. The young men were then electrified to hear the silent passenger say, “ I’ve paid the fares,old woman,” and quietly leave the ’bus without even bidding the critics of his wife’s conduct good day.

I noticed a telegram in the Stab the other evening which stated that the Hon. T. Fergus was obliged to leave his Ministerial duties in Wellington for a few days for a trip to Dunedin on private business. I was forthe moment concerned to thinkthat some calamity had perhaps befallen this popular t Minister of the Crown; but was immediately . reassured by reading just below that Mr Fergus’ private business was to act as skip of a team of bowlers who are to play in Dunedin duringthis and next week. What • are we all coming to ? A Minister has to leave his duties to play: bowls. . In a very short time we may expect to hear that the Hon. Jack Dash, of Educa on, has got a holi-

day to go on a football tour ; or the Premier begs the House to wait for his speech till he has finished his game of billiards with the Lord knows who. Nobody can doubt that we are a sportsloving people when we find the holders of our Ministerial portfolios taking holidays to play at bowls. Fancy Lord Salisbury asking the Portuguese Government to wait for his ultimatum on the Zambesi affair till he should finish a game of skittles with Mr Gladstone ; or till he should knock out Mr Parnell in one round.

give the following story for the benefit of railway reformers. The scene is, say the Grand Hotel, and a traveller comes dashing in at abouo eleven p.m. and demands a bed, as he wishes to retire at once. Asked why he comes so late, he replies that he ought to have arrived about six in the afternoon, but the “in fern ally slow trains delayed him. S bopped everywhere, and stopped as long as they could. If the engineer saw a dog fight, stopped the whole train to look at it. .Stopped at big stations and little stations, stopped for drinks, and stopped for nothing at all but pure cussedness. I never saw or heard of anything like it.” A little meek man in the corner suggested that he knew of a slower train. He was immediately jumped at, and blushingly told of a train from Helensville which a few months back used to stop regularly near Waikomiti to pick up a basket of eggs from an old woman, who sent them to a grocer in town. One day the train stopped as usual, but instead of a dozen the old lady had only eleven. “ And what do you think the kind-hearted engineer did?” “ Give it up.” “ Waited till the hen laid the extra egg. Solid fact.”

The Jubilee Management Committee are threatened with rather more than they bargained for in the multitudinous and miscellaneous collection of trade and merchandise which has been showered upon them from all sides in the form of donations in aid of the Jubilee funds. If this sort of thing had been anticipated the Committee might have arranged for a huge Jubilee bazaar, with stalls presided over by the beauties of Auckland. Here are some of the problems with which the Managing Committee have to wrestle: Two bullocks (alive and kicking, I suppose), potatoes by the ton, flour likewise by the ton, coal and firewood, suits of clothes, tobacco, groceries, perfume, boots, a collection of hats, a barrel of beer, several • dozen of bread, meat (in kegs and otherwise), butter, preserved fish, lollies, an umbrella, a christening cake, a sewing machine, and a host of other articles quite too numerous to enumerate. The problem to be solved is : What shall be done with these things ?

The idea that finds most favour is to utilise them as prizes in connection with the sports, but as these prizes are already provided for, probably some other scheme will be hit upon for the conversion of these articles of trade into a more convenient medium of exchange. The Maoris, who are expected to assemble in hundreds, could solve the problem without much ado, by converting those live bullocks into dead beef, the coal and firewood into fuel for preparation of the beef ; the groceries, butter, fish, etc., would go to swell the menu ; the lollies are intended for the batch of Maori dancing maidens; one of these dusky beauties would no doubt also be delighted with the silk umbrella, and another might appropriate the sewing machine. The tobacco and beer and many other articles would not come at all amiss, excepting that beer has been prohibited for the Maoris, and the Committee may have to drink it themselves. The greatest puzzle appears to be a christening cake, but even that might be joyously appropriated by some dusky wahine, and shared with numerous pickaninnies who have never yet had the good fortune to be either sprinkled or dipped. The eatables would, of course, be for the crowd, and the fancy goods would prove excellent inducements for a series of Maori contests in dancing, wrestling, running, canoeing etc.