The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1889. SWEATING IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1903, 13 June 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1889. SWEATING IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Following the example of the Otago Daily Times, the Lyttelton Times has commenced an investigation into the sweating system in Christchurch, and it has exactly the self-same story to tell. The sweating system exists in that city in all its cruel force. The first case cited by the Times is a woman making shirts at 4s 6d per dozen. She must find buttons and cotton, and cannot earn more than from one shilling to sixteen pence per day. Some few years ago the reporter was informed the price of making Crimean shirts was 16s per dozen, buttons and cotton being supplied to the workwoman. Now the price is 6s per dozen, and the woman has to buy the buttons and cotton. This is a fearful and awful reduction. What is the reduction in the price of wheat compared with this ? But this is not all. Flannel shirts a few years ago cost 9s 6d per dozen to make, cotton and buttons being supplied, now they are made for 4s 6d, the workers to supply their own cotton and buttons. Thus the system exists in Christchurch in as cruel a form as it is met with in Dunedin, and the cause is the same in both cities. In Dunedin it began by one of the large firms cutting down wages, in Christchurch it originated in a similar manner. In both cities the large and rich firms—the princes of the trade—began cutting down the prices, the smaller firms had to follow suit. In both places it has been clearly proved that the wealthier the employers are the less sympathy they show for the wretched creatures who make their fortunes. They regard them as mere tools to produce wealth. It is further stated that these firms employ large numbers of apprentices to whom they pay nothing, or not more than half-a-crown a week even when they get to know their business. Other people have to compete with work done in such establishments, and have to cut down prices in order to produce equally cheap goods. In our opinion the time has arrived for Parliament to step in and interfere in this matter. It is all nonsense to talk about such things being outside the functions of Parliament. Almost every institution we have was once outside the functions of Parliament, but social necessities brought them in, and just as the people became more and more enlightened the scope of Parliamentary action was enlarged. There cannot be the slightest doubt but the functions of the legislature will yet be extended much farther, to a degree little dreamt of now, and that the day will come when the rate of wages will be fixed under a legal enactment. Mr Parker, the president of the Tailors and Tailoresses Society, of Christchurch, said at the Dunedin meeting that trousers were made in Christchurch for Is per pair, and wondered why men were not ashamed to wear them. It is not the wearer’s fault. He does not know what they cost to make, but we believe that most men would feel ashamed if they knew that they were produced by starvation wages. There cannot be the slightest doubt but that the sweating system exists all over the colony, and every honest man ought to do his best to crush it under foot.