PROTECTION AND THE WORKERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7479, 25 September 1895, Page 2

PROTECTION AND THE WORKERS.

Some persons profess to believe that Protection is a policy that benefits the workers. As a matter of fact it is the policy out of which arise and upon which fatten capitalistic syndicates and ring 3, who bleed • the workers to the Inst drop. The horrible condition of Victoria at this moment* and for the last eight or ten years, with regard to the '' sweating " which Protection has brought into existence there, ought to be quite warning enough for all thinking persons of the evils ol such' a poli.cf. The Bishop of Melbourne recently lectured in thst town upon the sweating evil, and, using the facts collected by the Coin.mission to enquire into sweating in Victoria, he told some very unpleasant truths. Here is a short extract from hie lecture. Every fact in it ought to be a sting and a goad to those who run after the fiscal fallacy which has given birth to the horrors he but faintly describes :—" A woman triads waistcoats at 6d each and found her own cotton. A skilled hand working sixty hours a week earned 12s. A woman made trousers' pockets double stitched at Id per dozen. Shirts were made at Is per dozen complete, flannel shirts at Is 3d a dozen, large sac coats at Is 3d each, vests at Bd, trousers at 8d and sac suits complete at 2s 7d. In another factory 16s was paid for this latter work. In a suburb a woman made knickerbockers at 2a 9d a dozen complete for a clothing company, and her small child was engaged to sew on the buttons. A city house paid for the same work 9s a dozen. Another woman made moleakin trousers at 2d a pair, and a man's , coat for 9d. A man and his wife working together making boys' trousers and suits could only earfi 63 a week. A woman working for Indian hawkers could get 6d for each shirt, but she §ould only get 9d a dczen for the same shirts at the 3hops. A woman working from 9. a.m. till 11 p.m. earned 5s a week. In the bakory trade men wero worked eleven hours a day for £1 a week. The inspector of factories mentioned cases where a woman was working under Government contract eighty hours a week for £l making postmen's coats ; and another woman made railway coats fo3 4d each, whereas the cantractor got 7d."