The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 286, 2 December 1889, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1889.

For the cause that laeka assistance, Tct the vrcong that ncedis resistance, Far the fnture in the distance, And the good that we oan do.

By what strange or malignant fate is it that people engaged in jthe production or manufacture of the staples of life invariably receive the poorest reward for their labours ? An Invercargill clergyman declared.from the pulpit the other day that the bread which he ate almos t choked him when he remembered the long hours of arduous toil which men

had to undergo in , its preparation. There was some reason for the reverend gentleman's feeling, forleven in thes e .favoured lands operative: bakers have to work longer hours and receive less wages than any other cjass of skilled labour. When we reflect upon the general condition of labbur in these colonies, and recognise that popular sentiment is opposed ito the existence of inequality or injustice, we are forced to the conclusion that the crushing down of certain classes of labour to the bare means ot subsistence is the result of some merciless law, for which our hurbane civilisation has not yet succeeded in finding a counteraction.

But, il colonial bakers are badly off, their condition is blissful, when compared with that of their fellow-workers in London, In the great rpetropolis of the British Empire there are some 20,000 men employed in jthe making of bread, and these journeymen bakers have to work from 80 to j 114 hours every week, for the fixed .remuneration of 18s to 26s a week, according to the locality in which they worlc—the West End bakers paying the makiroum and those of the East End the minimum rate of pay. No wonder that, under the impulse given by true success of the dock labourers', trike, the journeymen bakers of Lor don lately resolved to demand payment, for all hours worked over 60 per Week, and, failing compliance, threatened to strike. They in September last started their agitation, under the leadership of John Burns, when they held a mass meeting in Hyde Park. The bakers of London being: now pretty well consolidated in

Unions, John Burns told them they might dictate their own terms, and his advice to them was to insist upon the recognition of 48 hours as a week's work. With, great moderation, however, the men only asked for a reduction, of the hours of labour to 60 per week, and they intimated that if this concession was not granted they would strike on 16th November last. Recent cable messages state that " 10,000 bakers would go out on strike," and this would indicate that the movement was by no means general, as that number only represents one-half of the bakers employed in London. There are about 5,000 Germans and other foreigners employed in the trade, and it is safe to assume that the bulk of these are not in the Union. In his address two months ago Burns was particularly caustic in his remarks on these foreign competitors, declaring that "the German bakers shall go back if the Germans from Buckingham Palace and Windsor should accompany them." The ten thousand men who threatened to strike doubtless represent the number embraced in the Bakers' Union, aud had they struck work, Londoners would have been in sore straits for their daily supplies of " the staff of life," since it would be manifestly impossible for the remaining ten thousand men to work double time, so as to keep up the ; regular supply. Happily, the men appear to have gained their point, and the prospect oi a bread famine in London has been averted. There can be no doubt that the question or" bakers' wages and hours of labour has a serious arid direct bearing upon the general welfare. Not only is physical degeneracy in bakers and their families to be feared :is the result of long hours of unhealthy l.'.bour, Uut ihe public health may suiter from consuming trie bread produced ivmier such conditions. In a vivid word picture cf the average London bakehouse, John Burns spoke ot "a fetid, filthy room at a temperature of 120 degrees, and a number of men stripped to the waist recking with perspiration, unwashed and dirty, because they had no time to wash or clean themselves." " There," he says, " that's where that bread of yours was made this morning; will you eat it ?" No one would eat bread which "he iriw manufactured under such conditions unless imp/eiled by the pangs 0; starvation. Surely the people of London will unite in demanding that bakehouses l)e subject to inspection, and that strict cleanliness shall be enforced both in the men and the appliances 0* the trade. If this were done, it would be a step in ths direction of bettering the condition of the men, by preventing the crushing competition of bakers who carry on their business in filthy and unsuitable premises, employing nonunion men. Probably the outcome o! such reform would be the addition oi a halfpenny to the price of the loaf—a serious matter to hundreds of thousands .of wretched people in London, but not so serious as the probable consequences of working under such conditions and consuming bread so produced.