H.—s

IV

he works.) We found there boys often, eleven, and twelve working in factories without any attempt at concealment, while the regulation as to the hours of employment was quietly ignored. One of these boys could not read, and others had passed but the First, Second, or Third Standard. (b.) That many of its provisions are vague and badly defined, and some wanting in elasticity. Clause 3 provides for ventilation, but does not attempt to define it or to provide a penalty where it is insufficient. Clause 7 provides for the closing of the factory during meal-times, but makes no provision for necessary accommodation specially needful in wet weather. Clause 5 limits absolutely the hours of labour, without giving the Chief Irfspector or the Resident Magistrate power to grant permits on special occasions to work longer hours under strictly-defined regulations as to wages and time. (c.) That the Inspectors appointed under it have insufficient powers. They cannot, for instance, compel instant admission, nor obtain a conviction for delay. They cannot themselves exercise the functions of a Sanitary Inspector or Inspector of Nuisances. These are but samples of the deficiencies of this Act, but a perusal of the reports of the Inspectors and of their evidence will show under what difficulties they labour. 2. That a number of persons are engaged for very long hours—in many cases, we believe, unnecessarily. 3. That there is a continued demand on the part of shop assistants, backed up in a great many cases by their emploj'ers, for early closing, and that the majority of them seem to think that this can only be secured permanently by law. It is only necessary to note the variety of opinion expressed by those in the forefront of this movement to see with how many difficulties the question is surrounded. 4. That the division of labour and the use of machinery have led to the employment of a larger number of youths and girls than were formerly engaged in the trades. The skill of the individual worker under these new conditions not being required of so high or comprehensive an order, it was inevitable that those engaged in keen competition should employ the cheapest labour at their command—cheapest not only because the supply was larger than the demand, but also because it required little previous training. 5. That the employment of these young persons to the exclusion of skilled and trained workers is the chief grievance among artisans in the various trades. Where trades-unions have been formed the proportion of lads to men has been strictly defined—in some cases with the avowed intention of keeping up the supply of skilled workers, but in the majority of cases only with a view to selfpreservation, and without regard to the larger question of finding employment for the hundreds of youths growing up in our midst. It would appear that the system of indenturing apprentices for a specific term has fallen, generally speaking, into disuse. In the trades especially in which young women .are employed, such as millinery and dressmaking, it is not unusual for young girls to give their services for the first year for nothing, and the second year for 6s. a week. At the end of that time, if they ask for an increase of wages, they are, in many instances, discharged, and other young girls are taken on in their places. The result is, that a considerable number of young persons who have had a very limited training are yearly led to seek work elsewhere as improvers, or to set up on their own account —in either case at low wages. In the mechanical trades for men the same system to a large extent prevails : boys called apprentices, but not indentured, begin at a low wage, and there is nothing to prevent their being discharged by the master, or leaving of their own accord, without a sufficient knowledge of their trade. They, however, go into competition with other journeymen, not only, as is alleged, to the discredit of the craft by their inefficiency, but to the cutting-down of wages. 6. We have had brought to our notice the disabilities under which subcontractors labour, in that they have no lien upon the building or work upon which they are engaged. We understand that in America the law enables them