The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, MAY 3,1890.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2778, 3 May 1890, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, MAY 3,1890.

Equal and cxact justtco to all men, Of whatsoever statu or persuasion, religious or political.

The great Labour Demonstrations which took place on Thursday in America and in Europe will be watched with keen anxiety throughout the civilised world. The avowed object is to secure a reduction in the hours of labour, to eight per day, in all vocations that permit of this being done. For this object, the people of many nations will assemble in hundreds of thousands wherever they are free and their Governments are not afraid. Happily for us in New Zealand, the eight hours rule has always prevailed and is ingrained by custom into our social live. We con look on with sympathy and with our heartiest good wishes for the toilers who are struggling for the boon which we have always enjoyed. The value of that boon can only be fully appreciated by those who have witnessed the degenerating eflect of long hours of monotonous toil. Production becomes excessive and the workmen lose vital force. They work rather as machines than as living men. Having no lime for tho enjoyments of domestic life, their standard of living becomes lowered and their energies fall in proportion. The first thing that usually strikes a stranger in New Zealand is the prosperous, bright, and vigorous look of the working classes. This is particularly observable when they an; assembled for a holiday, or for any public celebration. The perfect order and propriety, the almost complete absence of drunkenness, and the kindly good nature that then prevail, are striking characteristics due in no small decree to the limitation of the labour day to 8 hours. The humanising effects of home life are apparent, but how can they be experienced by men and women to whom home is only a placc to retire to, weary and

worn out at the close of the day, merely to sleep and gain strength for a renewal of the dreary round next morning. In the older countries the spread of education and the increasing international intercourse, have produced discontent with the old order of things. A change is demanded. It may be deferred but must come. The people of America are free, and will settle their differences at the ballot box. The people of Europe are many of them, not free. But they are no longer the undisciplined mobs of a few years back. Immense standing armies have required that all the people should be drilled and ready to take the field. Thus, there are huge masses of trained and disciplined men so connected with the armies that the latter could not always be relied upon to act against them. It is this new feature that gives unusual force and significance to the wide-spread struggle in which the events about to occur mark an onward and remarkable step.