FACTORY LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 3

FACTORY LIFE.

THE WELLINGTON TAILORESSES.

' Tailoring—it does not , sound attractive work,- "■ stitching, heavy' materials into garments,', and yet there is no doubt .that, tho average', girl:who..sets, out-to earn her. living by sewing-iwould rather be'': so engaged than, otherwise. The questionvof wages has 'a good, deal to dp with it. '...".'. : . • . ■

■' As far as one can gather—the exacb figures are-not obtainable—there are 700 or more girls employed in the tailoring itrade ■■ m Wellington. . Most of the tailor's shops, and the tailoring departments' in tho big stores, employ them largely, but by. far the greatest; employer of'their labour :in this town is the Wellington Woollen Co., whiclx, out at its Petone Mills, weaves all sorts of. tweeds and',woollen' stuffSj and, /at its .factory;:ill Jervois Quay, keeps- nearly two hundred women and girls-jiard. at work, making- that material up ; into suits, costumes, aiid-coats. ;/ ; .-..: : A visit to this factory one; day last week proved most interesting,. and enabled one to'understand somdt-hins of a girl's reason for ' undertaking- such, work.' The (nrls" f workrooms are at the very- .toil of"the 'building,j lighted by windows Vat' the' sidelaridybyvsKi'lightsv: and there,- all day longf these- scores of girls are : aW6fk, r :th;or,;jnajbn.tyof,. them machining, and the others taking ■or-finishing the. garments'..by hand, while at one end of the;,second room tho pressers .wield .the Eas-irons that ar.otoo heavy .for a, , 'woman to lift. It is rather an impressive sight—those, two rooms filled with rows and rows of girlsi but, in spite of t-hteir'number, the guide pointel out here and • there■■ machines with "no'girls W tend them; and said that they.could'find work for a hundred more girls if. tfiose girls were obtainable. •■'.' / /. ;' ■'■■•.

' The garments' in, their- various sectious are then 'taken upstairs, -where, the womenfolk jeack and sew and finish them by the aid of. a great variety of machines;' Perhaps..; ono, reajly appreciates tho; ordinary. ■ domestic sowing machine : wijbli , ; : its .:variety,- of ingenious attapW.ents more after, seeing how' . these / machines' specialise—machines for coats, machines-for trousers, machines for buttons■ and- buttonholes, and fancy' stitching.■..-.' ~..-. It is always calculated to make .one turn green with envy" to see a buttonhole marihine' atv work, but there is a more ingenious one still, that carries a little; kuifo behind, tho needle and cuts th'e cloth so tiiat tho buttonhole is cut And stitched, with' a simultaneous action. 1 Then there is a machine with six needles, - marching all abreast, for stitching the fronts' of coats.and the hems -of, skirts, and a small machine that overcasts long.,seams like lightning.! Passing this, one, caino to a machino which. at once sews an edge and cuts off the superfluous cloth, and then [on to the oho which sews a double seamj and the ingenious inachino which sews/ cii. buttons and.'possesses ail' adjustable hand to suit the size of varying buttons. Seeing 'how easily if'did its. work, one' folf.tliat. thero was no excuse, for : 'a button'over coming off 'a tailored garment. . . Li;ttle sisters to this machine, are tho one/which- clamps buttons on . instead of Sewing them, and tho other which covers buttons witli cloth to match any garinent. All these machines aro ■worjked by girls—bright, intelligent, alerjt-looking-girls, ■ who are export machinists and not merely the feeders of a ilnacliine. The work did not look heajvy—all the machines were worked In , oleitric. power—and the girls were able to','gjvo their undivided attention- to gujdiug the course of the needle. ' In tho hugo English factories the work is:, very much more specialised, arid, a girl, all the year round, will mAko nothing but sleeves 'and sleeves and still more sleeves; but here, for-, tuiiately, there is not opportunity for th'e samo' deadening monotony, and tliough a girl may usually work one sort of machine, she will have an opportunity of varying her work. Many o;f tho girls are very young. _ They riiay, with permission, enter their three years' apprenticeship at fourteen, and dt seventeen have a new apprentice working under their direction, and many pi them stay on for years at the work fthoy like. 1 I There was a time, when a master jtailor prided himself on having all his ; work done by men, but that day is > past, and in the very best tailors'.w-ork- ' rooms, numbers of girls arc to bo \ found. It may be, of course, that the great improvement in the machines used partly accounts for this,' but the' fact remains that the. girls aro doing satisfactory work. One imagines that a place like the Wellington ' Woollen Factory, which turns out enormous numbers of ladies' coats and costumes overy week, as well as suits for men and-boys, must be moro interesting than the ordinary factory for. men's dull suits alone, but probably the accomplished laiioress does not notice such distinctions. • The hours aro good—from eight to five all the week, with three-quarters of an hour oil' for lunch, and a halfholiday that begins'before mid-day on Saturday. As has been said, the wages aro good—a girl starts at five shillings, but,she may reach 325. Gd. before slio leaves off, if she secures a position where she oversees loss . experienced workers. Truly a girl who is determined on factory life. might do worse than, become a tailoress. ■ .