AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF FEMALES.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1328, 4 January 1881, Page 3

AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF FEMALES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — I really hardly t know whaf; we should do when we suffer under certain inveterate grievances, if public, opinion had not a Court of redress for. us. I know very well that you have no room for compliments, but the mere truth has a right to be heard, even in its humblest utterances On that account I come to your exceptional coluninu, where every respectable applicant can get an audience. The Act for the employment of females, 1873, sec. 4, allows a half holiday every Saturday afternoon. Amendment Act, 1874, Sec 3, states no female shall be employed at any time between the hours of six in the afternoon and eight in the morning, or for more than eight hours in any one day. Amendment Act, 1876, Sec. 13, further states " any person who permits a breach of the said Act, or this Act, shall be liable for each offence to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds. ' ' The penalty may be recovered in a summary way before any two Justioes of the Peace. Sir, although we have a most intelligent Police force in Waikato, they jure either purblind, or do not know their duty. There are many dressmaking establishments in this district where young girls are kept at work until half - past seven o'clock every evening, with only half an hour for dinner, and the same time for tea. In one of these establishments a man is the time-keeper, and chalks the time of going to and oommg from meals ; and if one minute over the half hour is taken, that time must be replaced before leaving. But I trust that common justice and common sense will rule with a strong hand, and carry order and discipline into a world which, but for these, would be a wild waste of greedy passions. — I am, tea., A Spinster.