THE EIGHT HOURS BILL IN SYDNEY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 818, 30 May 1871, Page 2

THE EIGHT HOURS BILL IN SYDNEY.

A. Bill has been introduced into the New South "Wales Parliament, the object of which is to fix eight hours as the limit of a day's work. The 1 Sydney Mail" thus comments on it: —"Every one will admit that it is desirable that the working classes should rise intellectually and morally. We cannot consider our social condition perfect, unless the great mass of the people lead. a life worthy of humanity, and they cannot do this if their physical condition is kept down, and their lives are degraded by poverty, ignorance, and intemperance. It also seems undeniable that if they are to rise they must raise themselves, — that the philanthropy of the rich cannot supersede the self reliant effort of the poor, and that a great social improvement must really be the work of those who are to benefited by it. Under these circumstances, the sympathies of those who desire social progress are favourably enlisted on behalf of any proposal for ameliorating the condition of what are called the working classes. At the same time nothing is gained by misstating facts. It is very doubtful, certainly, it is not proved, that eight hours' work will be equal in quantity and value to ten hours' work. The probability is that a universal shortening of the hours of labour would have the immediate effect of diminishing the wealth-producing result of a day's work, and of, consequently, increasing the cost of all public and private undertakings. A compensation for this may ultimately be found in the increased use of machinery, which makes labour so much more effective, and for. this reason artisans should give every encouragement to the invention and employment of machinery, as the one thing calculated to reconcile the general interests of society with high wages and short hours."