The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1905.

Evening Star, Issue 12647, 30 October 1905, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1905.

bad as they threatened to be at one time, and a measure of praise te due to Legislative Councillors for their wisdom and public spirit in improving the Bill. Many people think that the Council might have been still bolder and more persistent, but it has to be borne in mind that the temper of the representative chamber was peculiar and somewhat reactionary, and compromise was probably the only means of saving the situation. It would have been a pretty sort of result if all these discussions and investigations had left the country at the jnerqy of the old Act. Nothing is to be gained by criticism at the present stage, and we shall not dwell at length even upon such obvious defects as the undue advantage given to shopkeepers who do not employ labor or fas we think) the unwarrantably late hours fixed in soma instances as regards employment on the “ late night.” We are convinced that this is not a final settlement of the whole matter, but there should be nothing in the way of farther agitation until a fair trial has been given to the fresh conditions. The new enactment may not be perfect, but it is not bad, and all parties may bo counselled to accept it with a candid determination to make the best of it and avoid friction. The new provisions will be found set forth in another column, and tradesmen will do well to study them carefully—each employer of labor making quite sure of his individual position—as the law will be promptly and scrupulously administered. We may observe, in ooncln--:oig that neither the Government nor the House of Representatives ore to be specially congratulated over their treatment of the subject—and the Opposition (as represented by Mr Massey) still less than the Ministry. One man, at least, has worked hard and intelligently with a view to solving the problem in a satisfactory fashion, and the new Act would be much better than it is if Mr Arnold had had his way in the Labor Bills Committee and in the House.

loe not altogether satisfied with the form in which the Shops and TheSbapsssd Offices BID. has become law. Offices Bill, and we stall hold that the ( Government should have proposed a much simpler alteration of last pear’s Act. It must be admitted, how- , thahin ths upshot* tinnswsre not so