SWEATED INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 133, 5 June 1907, Page 2

SWEATED INDUSTRY.

(Continued from page 3.)

There was a very fair attendance when Sir. F. Bauine, M.H.R., opened the exhibition this afternoon. AfTer apologising for the unavoidable absence of the Mayor (Mr. A. M. Myers), who. was to have opened the exhibit, Mr. ■Baume said that if anything could braig forcibly home to the people of this colony the benefits of living in a country having wise legislation regarding labour, it was such a display as they had before them. (Applause and "Hear, hear.") Such a state of affairs was practically impossible in this colony as ■was responsible for that exhibit. The so-called freedom oi contract between employer and employee had reBiilted in that shameful state of things. And how could our colonial workmen hope to compete with the labour that produced those articles. To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest did not always apply in true economy. The law no doubt imposed individual cases of hardship, but the general .wellbeing far outweighed minor considerations, and to see what was possible in a country whose labour laws had not reached the high state our own had reached. So long as human life was considered of value, so lon<* as humanity •was to be a factor in the relation of employer and employee, so long must they bless the labour laws that made such, a state of things as "sweated industries" impossible in this country. Everyone in Auckland, he hoped, would visit that chamber, and see for themselves, as many thousands had in the other centres, what we had to avoid in this colony at any hazard. (Applause.)