THE EIGHT HOURS BILL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 9419, 20 June 1882, Page 3

THE EIGHT HOURS BILL.

Mr Green's Eight Hours Bill will be a great boon to many persons besides labourers and artizans. It defines a legal working day to consist of eight hours, and forty- eight hours to be a legal week's work, in all occupations, whether the

occupation be of a mental or physical uatiire. Wu iidmif the phraseology to be peculiar, and open to criticism ; but the advantages ought to be conferred is great, and will be -welcomed by thousands of employees. Merchant s clerks and bank clerks will welcome a law- which will free thorn from the drudgery and incipient slavery in which they now frequently toil, The forty-eight hours a-week clause is a well-considered clause ; for it is not unusual for young men to be required to turn to their desks on Sunday, and to spend their holiday "hours over day-book, cash-book and ledger. Should Mr Green's Bill become law, it will put an end to such slavery. It has come to our knowledge that many serious bseak-downs to health have been due to the over-work to which young men have been subjected under the present system. This will not be possible should the Bill become law. Is T or is the Bill liable to the objections that have been made against it. It has been described as interfering with the domestic management of the household ; with the management of ships at sea. Of course, 'any attempt to regulate th e hours of sailors and domestic servants by this Bill would be a serious mistake. Such employments are of a peculiar nature, and cannot, however much it is needed, be regulated. Nor does tne Bil attempt to do so. Its third section says : " The following persons shall be excepted from the operations of this Act : All persons employed as farm laborers, domestic servants, or in dairies, or sailors on board ships not lying alongside wharves. All persons engaged in avocations such as will allow of a lesser number of hours to be worked than eight hours for a legal day, or forty-eight hours for a legal week." We think these clauses give all the protection which common sense demands, and we trust that the Bill will become law.— Christchurch Telegragh.