The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882.

Evening Star, Issue 5966, 26 April 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882.

We confess to some amount of disappointment in regard to the public meeting held yesterday evening for the purpose of furthering the movement to legalise the eight-hours system of labor. The notice published by the Otago Trades and Labor Council invited the working-classes of Dunedin and suburbs to hear "an explanation of the necessity for "legalising the eight-hours system," and we certainly expected, from the array of platform talent advertised to be present, should have heard good sound practical reasoning in favor of legislation, which would involve very grave, economical, and social questions. A perusal of the report of the proceedings, which appears in another column, will show that the speeches of the proposers and seconders of tho resolutions were superficial in the extreme, and that by those who addressed the meeting there was no serious attempt to grasp the difficulty of applying a cast-iron scale of hours of labor to the various employments in which the remuneration is not by the day or the hour. In asking Parliament to approve of a general measure of legalisation, it will most certainly have to be shown how this can have practical effect without injury to the employed themselves. The employers, as a matter of common justice, have a right also to be heard; but with this class at present we have no concern. Holding as they do the pursestrings, they have, without doubt, the key of tho position, since no possible legislation can oblige them to pay more than the current trade value of service actually performed. The first resolution we may at once state entirely commends itself to our judgment. From a humanitarian and social point of view there can be, we think, no manner of doubt that "the eight-hours " system should be encouraged in every possible way by the people of the Colony." Three or four yeais ago, when the subject was agitated, we warmly advocated the early closing of all places of business, and we made a crusade especially against the crying evil of Saturday night shopping. Our efforts, and the efforts of those who worked with us, were, however, ineffectual in the face of pullic opinion and established usage. We refer to this particular class of labor thus employed for long hours because Mr Thorn, who moved the first resolution, made it the chief point in his address, and very sensibly pointed out that it would be well that " the working classes should not only preach "the system but practise it as affecting " others." Mr Bolt and Mr Bracken advocated the system on "economic, social, "and moral grounds, "and we quite agree with the sentiments expressed by those gentlemen, which, however, we take leave to think are not the sentiments which influence the ordinary working man in desiring the duration of the working day to be fixed by law. No rational person doubts that eight hours continued and closely-applied exertion is as much as any man can reasonably undertake day by day if he would retain a sound mind in a sound body, and that it is further most desirable that opportunities of self-education and of healthful recreation should be open to all classes. These truisms may be elaborated with more or less eloquence, and are sound arguments in favor of 'the encouragement of the eight-hours system, but they in no respect touch the point at issue, for the consideration of which the meeting was convened—namely, the necessisy, in the public interests, of legalising the system as a general one, applicable to every kind of employment. Mr Edward Wilson moved, and Mr Peter Cairns seconded, the resolution to the effect that "the time has now arrived " when the hours of labor should be defined "and legalised, in order that the value of " every man's labor may be measured by the "same standard." This was of course the crucial resolution of the meeting, and we might have supposed that it would have been supported by something like argument, that at least some attempt at demonstration would have been made as to the working of present arrangements between the employers and the employed and the several principal classes of labor, and that it was within the bounds of practicability that the value of every man's labor might be "measured by "the same standard." The speeches failed entirely in these respects. Mr Wilson gave us his reasons for advocating the proposed legislation that " tho labor of a working man "was his only capital," and that "if in the "old country there was a legalised eight- " hours system the many gigantic strikes " would not occur," which, to say the least of it, is begging the question. Mr M. W. Green spoke eloquently and feelingly on the general subject, but avoided altogether the question involved in the resolution. We are entirely in accord with him in condemning the long hours, occasional, we believe, in the Post Office, but the ordinary rule in the Railway Department. The Government should, we think, set a better example, and.

not strive to squeeze all the work possible out of men, with the knowledge that permanent employment and sure pay will always secure them as much labor as is required. Mr Green especially mentioned the case of the tram-drivers and conductors which certainly does seem a hard one, but it must be recollected that the work is by no means of a heavy character, nor requiring close, continuous application. It may also be presumed that the arrangements of the traffic are a consideration in settling the rate of wages which are paid, and it has not been stated whether this rate is not equitable in proportion to the hours of work. In regard to the employment of children, more especially female children, we most cordially approve of the extension of the provisions of Bradshaw's Act so as to prevent them being overworked or employed in any manner after dark. We are aware, and have frequently called attention to the fact, that many boys and girls are placed out in shops and warehouses who ought to be at school; and we again commend the matter to the considerate* of the Dunedin School Committee. Mr Robert Stout made decidedly the speech of the evening, so thoroughly sensible and practical that it could hardly have been Very pleasing to the gushing orators who preceded him. He pointed out that there was no miraculous element in statute law which would effect social revolutions and disturb established economic relations. Local option legislation had proved a failure, he indicated, because it was not in sympathy with public opinion. It was no use having a statute passed " only to find when it was "law that they were just in the same "position as before." Nothing more, he pointed out, could really be effected by legislation than to provide that where there was no specific agreement the legal inference would be that eight hours was a day's work. This would not practically affect the hours of labor one whit. He very correctly insisted that the general adoption of a system of reasonable hours in all classes of labor could only be brought about by a strong public sentiment in its favor, and intimated plainly that the working men themselves were largely to blame for the long hours worked by many employe's. "It was mechanics and laborers who "did the Saturday night shopping." In fact, Mr Stout told the meeting as clearly as he well could without being offensive, that "what was sauce for the "goose was sauce for the gander," and that an ounce of practice was worth a ton of profession and flummery. Ho evidently thinks, from what he said in conclusion, that a good many reforms are desirable in the social economics of the working classes besides the legalisation of the eight • hours system, alluding specifically to the vast amount of money squandered annually in liquor and tobacco and to the demoralisation of youth by early habits of smoking, which is, in truth, a notorious mischief in this City, and should be looked to by parents who have common consideration for the health of their children. Mr Fish, as they say in the law reports, followed on the same side as his learned friend Mr Stout, agreeing that "the only thing they could do was to get '' the public sentiment on the question strong '' and general; without that they might have "as many laws as they liked, and people " would not conform to them." He declared himself prepared to support in Parliament a Bill to declare that eight hours should be a legal day's work, but stated that he would not be in favor of more specific legislation on the subject. The trades and Labor Council might do a great deal in the way of awakening public sentiment in favor of the abbreviation of the hours of labor to those classes who are somewhat at the mercy of their employers, by acting on the suggestions of Mr Stout and Mr Thorn in regard to late shopping and the especial grievance of employed in shops open on Saturday night?. The Council might also legitimately bestir itself in the matter of the employment of children by the collection of statistics and otherwise, which would be a guide to the Legislature and assist the School Committee in enforcing the compulsory clauses of the Education Act. We would also suggest that in furtherance of the immediate object of the Council, a short pamphlet, setting forth what is really demanded by the legalisation of the eighthours system, should be compiled for general information.