The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 288, 4 December 1889, Page 4

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

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1889.

Per the caust that Uoki aeiietenee, Sor the wrens that needs reristanct, Tor the future In the distance, And file good that we can do.

When on Monday we referred to the serfdom of English journeymen bakers, and quoted the remarks of an Invercar. gill clergyman upon the condition of the same class of workmen in that town, we were unaware that in Auckland instances could be furnished of journeymen who work on the aver.

age from sixty to ninety hours every week. We are assured, however, by a master baker upon whose word we place implicit reliance, that this is actually the fact, and that the condition of the trade in Auckland would fairly warrant the denunciation which John Burns hurled against it in Great Britain. In some bakehouses, we are informed, men commence work at ten o'clock on Friday night, and do"* not knock off until four o'clqck on Saturday afternoon, beingthus on duty for sixteen hours — two full days' wprk for any man—and this at the paltry wage of 35s to £2 5s per week. The result is that the bakehouses in which such a system prevails are usually in a filthy condition; the men, physically and mentally worn out by overwork, have neither time nor inclination to clean up the bakehouses properly; the tables on which the'- bread is kneaded form beds for the workmen, a few old sacks supplying the bedclothes; and the dirt thus accumulated, with a free admixture derived from perspiring bodies, is freely distributed around in the loaves furnished to the bakers' customers.

We are told that this is no fancy picture; that.it is applicable not merely to one or two bakehouses, but to, a considerable number, and that the excuse given for it is that competition compels the baker to cut prices so low that he cannot live without treating his workmen worse than men were ever treated in the old slave-owning days of .America. . The statement seems almost incredible. One can hardly believe that in a colony like this men could be found willing to submit to such a system of abject: slavery. Even ?ngr land the journeymen; have lebeUco-

and bave compelled the limitation of hours to sixty per week. But here apparently the naen have neither union nor the spirit to form a combination which will secure for themselves just treatment. We are confident that if they did so public feeling would be undividedly on their side, even if some little increase in the price of bread were to result from the emancipation. It surely cannot be the desire of working men who insist themselves upon an eight hours' day that their cheap loaf shall be purchased with the blood of their fellow creatures. There are, however, many bakers who even under existing conditions find it perfectly practicable to treat their men like human beings who have home ties and higher faculties to nurture. And perhaps owing to the fact that many of the men are satisfied with, their lot, there is no bond,of unity throughout the trade. Indeed, the want oi any fixed and; uniform system of work throughout the baking trade operates against combination. Many bakers do : their own baking, and gradually fall themselves under a tyrannical system, against which they inwardly revolt yet feel unable, owing to the conditions under which they compete in the struggle for life, to throw off the shackles of servitude.

What, then, should be done? We believe that if there were unity enough among the men to inaugurate a uniform system upon a better basis, a majority of the masters would go heartily with them ; of the sympathy of the public at large there cannot be a shadow of doubt We invite those who are engaged in the trade to ventilate this question more fully, in the hope that the discussion will lead to some action calculated to bring about a better state of things. -