The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 299, 17 December 1889, Page 4

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

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1889.

- ' ■ .--.<»■■■•■■.■ ■ - Fir the eaufl* that lacke assistance, F< r the wrong that neeets resistance, Pβ r tite future in the distance, A* d &• geod that wo \ can do.

The subject of the hours of labour is attracting: a very great; amount of public, attention in England, and according to our cable advices to-day, Mr Gladstone and Lord Randolph repre. I senting opposite political parties, have publicly avowed their with the demand for remedial measures. The agitation latterly hap especially been directed towards a mitigation of the condition #( tramway and railway employees, who suffer, in a special degree from overwork. In several cities the force or' public opinion has compelled directors'of companies to make a change. .At Glasgow this was secured through pressure brought-to bear by the Corporation, which imposed as a condition necessary to the continued enjoyment of the privileges conferred by tfie-- city, that the ; working day of

drivers and conductors shall henceforth not exceed ten hours, and the men are to be provided with comfortable uniforms, a greatcoat being added in winter. Glasgow tramway shares yield a return of 7 per cent, even on a price which represents a considerable premium over par.

The Leeds Tramway Company have also decided to revise the working hours of their men, and henceforth each driver and. conductor will be allowed one full day per week off. The change has involved the making of additions to the working staff, and the Company propose by way of compensation for the loss of pay during the day off to grant each driver and conductor a bonus of 5s per month.

With regard to overwork on tramways, Mrs Reany, the wife of a Manchester clergyman, in a paper which she has contributed to the " Contemporary Review," recommends the enforcement of the plan adopted in Glasgow whenever a corporation has the power to place restrictions upon a company. The railway companies are not so easily dealt with, and they are among the worst sinners in exacting an excessive amount of labour from their employees. According to a Parliamentary return, 632,927 instances were given in evidence ot drivers, firemen, signalmen, goods guards, and passenger guards remaining on duty thirteen hours and upwards at one spell. There were 25,525 instances of men remaining at work eighteen hours and upwards — how far upwards the return did not show. At a mass meeting of railway men held in Manchester it was resolved to struggle for the adoption of the following programme :—That a week's pay should be guaranteed to all grades of railway men who had to devote the whole of their time to the service of the company ; that the maximum hours of labour should be ten per day, except in the case of platelayers, who should only work nine, and signalmen, etc., in busy places who should only work eight; that each day's duty should count by itself as regards overtime, and that overtime should be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter, and Sunday duty time and a half. A national memorial is being promoted on this basis.

The proposal to enact an Eight Hours' law, which Mr Gladstone promises to take' into consideration, has not yet been approved by a majority of the English trades unions. The men fear, and not without good reason, the competition of continental labour and wares. According to a parliamentary return laid before the House of Commons, showing the hours of labour in other countries, Germany is entirely without any laws restricting adult labour, and very long hours with no small amount of Sunday work prevail there. In many branches of manufacture Germany is Great Britain's chief rival. In France statutory decrees are in existence limiting the working hours in manufactories to twelve per day, but these are rarely enforced and may, for all practical purposes, be considered obsolete. In Belgium the average day's labour is eleven hours, but fourteen and seventeen hours are not uncommon in some occupations. With unrestricted free trade, there does appear to be substantial ground for the objection which has prevailed with many English trade-unions, that the adoption of the eight hours system in England only may be the means of driving certain classes of raanufactures abroad.