The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning Nwes and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1908. LABOUR DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 246, 14 October 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning Nwes and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1908. LABOUR DAY.

—. » For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, Xni the road that we can do.

The commemoration of Eight Hours Day has long been accepted throughout j Australasia as a fit and proper occasion i for public demonstration of the power . and solidarity of Labour. And in our opinion no more suitable opportunity , could be found for the amicable reunion , of our industrial forces than such a celebration, as this. For it is now generally admitted that, while the workers have gained in every way through the statutory limitation of the hours of labour, the employers and the community i as a whole have profited equally through this salutary reform. The democratic constitution which these colonies enjoy is based upon the assumption that the well-being of tho majority is the true object of legislation, and the real goal of social and industrial progress. And a natural corollary of this principle is that anything which benefits the majority of the people, physically, mentally, or morally, will necessarily prove an advantage to the community, taken as a whole. Originally, the Eight Hours' movement wtut tolerated by Capital as a concession that areumstances compelled it to make against its will to the claims •of Labour. Bnt to-day throughout this i country it is recognised by all sections lof the community alike that the abolition of the old tyrannous system of overwork, bas not only made life healthier, and happier for the wage earners, , but by improving their efficiency, j strengthening their physique, and rais- j ' ing their standard of comfort, has re- j acted most beneficially upon the employers and capitalists as well. Eight Hours Day in Australasia has, therefore, rightly come to be accepted as a national function in which the inter- ' ests of Capital, no less than Labour, are j ' represented and involved. And if the ] "socialißti-" experiments in which our colonial legislatures have indulged had ; produced no other effect than this, the ; elevation of Labour Day to the rank oi i an anniversary of truly national significance is am achievement of which all true i democrats might well be proud. For it is not many years since the suggestion that it would be well to pass laws limiting the length of the working day was greeted with mingled indignation and derision even in the most progressive and nighly civMised countries in the world. • When LoTd Shaftesbury began his ' humanitarian campaign on behalf of women and children worlang in factories ' and mines, he was assured by even so genuinely philanthropic a main as John Bright, that such u_rwarran_a-»le interference with the natural course of trade would not only iiTetrievaWy injure the interests of the employer, _ut would dc- ■ grade and demoralise the worker by j I weakening Ms powers of endurance and ] teaching him to look to the State for I protection and support. Within the life- j time of this generation, such monstrous doctrines have been vigorously upheld in j England and Australasia; and it speaks ■ e-oquently for the great transformation through which public sentiment on such subjects has passed that in New Zealand ' and Australia at least the statutory j Eight Hours Day is now universally accepted and approved as one of the permanent and immutable foundations of our i industrial systean. It is true that in this respect, as in many others, New Zealand and Australia have advanced further and faster | than England. In regard to the limitation of the working day, as in many other respects, public opinion at Home lags far behind us. But we have the satisfaction of knowing that the success of our own "sodalistic" experiment in thii.direction is now freely quoted even in England in support of the measures which the more advanced Liberals are now advocating to protect the workers! against over-pressure, with all its attend-! ant evils. In this respect, as in so many i i other features of social and industrial progress, we can say without arrogance 1 that New Zealand and Australia standi far in advance of the older countries; and j Labour in these colonies should never forget that the victories it has so far | won, and the liberties and privileges that ' it has secured have been gained for it i under the banner of Liberalism. Though • there is no Labour party in New Zealand distinct from that Liberal party which i r has so long and so ably championed the ' cause of the workers, there have been I tendencies displayed in recent years in j this drreetion. But whatever may be the ■ reason for the existence of an Independent Labour party in England, where conservation, so far as the rights of the workers are concerned, seems to be inherent in Liberals as well as in Tories, . there is no excuse for it here. New Zealand is, from the workers' standpoint, the freest and most advanced country in the world, and Liberalism has made it so: ■ i and it would be well for the workers, in j view of the coming pciitical campaign, . while they are celebrating Eight Hours I Day, to recall the many benefits and ad-1' i vantages which they have secured r through Liberalism here, and the obliga- . I tions under which they, therefore, stand ' j to our tried and trusty exponents of the ' ,]____ fait* of WftmU _____>__—atfr i