FACTORIES BILL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 964, 3 November 1910, Page 2

FACTORIES BILL.

AMENDMENTS MADE BY THE COMMITTEE. CHINESE LAUNDRIES. THE BRANDING CLAUSE. Tho Labour Bills Committee have made several amendments in the Factories Amendment Bill. They have struck out the clauses stipulating that certain manufactures were to be branded or labelled "Made in New Zealand." . These articles were mentioned in, the .first schedule (now struck out) as follow:—Clothing and textile goods, leather goods, furniture, canned and preserved foods for human consumption. The evidence taken by the Committee has been ordered to be printed. William Tong, of Auckland, and Louis Lock, of Wellington, gave evidence regarding Chinese laundries. The Consul for China (Mr. Yung-liang-Hwang) was present, and questioned those witnesses. The secretary of the Employers' Federation (Mr. Wm. Pryor) also asked questions. The evidence of tho Chinese witnesses was to the effect that the work in Chinese laundries was irregular. They had to wait about five hours for tho things to dry, and that caused them to do their ironing late at night. There are 32 shops and laundries in ' Wellington worked by Chinese. The witness Lock said the Chinese laundry work in Wellington was decreasing. The price was 6d. for a shirt, and 2d. for a collar. The reason tho Chinese went' into the ■ laundry business was that when they came here they were very poor, and had not sufficient funds to go jn for gardens or fruit shops." They had to keep open late becauso people did not bring in their clothes till late-. They .asked for a 54 hours' week. Mr. Pryor, in his evidence, urged that no further restrictions should be placed on European laundries. " Competition from Chinese laundries was a very serious thing in so far as European laundries were concerned. Ho said there wero 33 Chinese laundries and 39 European laundries in Wellington, not including the suburbs. . Speaking on the branding clause, Mr. Pryor asked that it be deleted altogether. Ho said: —"Wo say that the requirements would be found to be impracticable in some cases, and it would bo found to have exactly the opposite effect to what is intended.. Wo take it. that the intention is to encourage and increase the sale of those Now Zealand-made articles, and to foster a patriotic feeling in connection with those articles. The clause provides that they should bo branded as 'Made in New Zealand.' There is no question that in connection with some of the goods, mentioned you are going to destroy the sale to a very serious extent, t and, as a matter of fact, hurt both the employers and tho workers." Mr. Robert Hannah, boot merchant, Wellington, said if' the branding law was introduced ho had no hesitation in saying that tho sale of the upper grades, in which they wore endeavouring to compote with the imported article,, would be affected by 50 per cent. .Hβ said they, made as good boot.s hero as they imported, but thoy had not got the public to believe so. During the course of his evidence, Mr. Hannah said:—'.'l.might tell you that at' one tinic wo ' had a very loyal Premier and a very loyal AttorneyGeneral. Theso two gentlemen camo in', and I served! them myself. .. They wanted colonial goods, and I certainly showed'.them good:.stuff.,as well as,jmported stuff. The Premier took three pairs of tho imported, and tho AttorneyGeneral two; so there, is .your., loyalty,".