SWEATED INDUSTRIES

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43100, 4 June 1907, Page 4

SWEATED INDUSTRIES

Truly might New Zealand be called “God's own country” when we read the terrible story of the conditions in the tailoring trade in the East End of London, which was told recently at the Stepney Coroner's Court during the inquest on Harold Knight, twelve mionthis old. Mrs Florence Knight, who seemed very" ill, and; was wretchedly dressed, said that her husband deserted her a year ago, a few days before the birth of the child. She had another child, and she had to go out charing, to support herself and the children, leaving the latter in charge of her mother. Mrs Eliza Hales, Mrs Knight's mother, said she . made her living by finish trousers at twopence a pair, out of which she had to find her own needles and thread. “I have often worked until four o’clock in the morning to get a crust of bread,” she said. She stated that she had to go to her em plaice for her work, and to take it 'home when finished, and during this 1 time her grandchild was left alone. “And all this in this beautiful country of ours!” said the foreman of the jury. “Was you employer an alien 1” “No, she was English;” said Mrs Hales.