The Hawera Star. MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1924. LABOUR DAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 October 1924, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1924. LABOUR DAY.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clocK m Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Pateu, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Araraia,

Once again the people of the Dominion are celebrating the adoption of the principle of the eight-hour working day. So used have people become to the eight-hour day that it is difficult to think of there ever being a time when much longer hours were worked, but Drummond in his “Life and Work of Richard John Seddon” gives some interesting facts concerning the eighthour question in the early days. The chief mo,ver in the agitation for legislative recognition of the principle was Mr Bradshaw, a resident of Dunedin. In three different sessions he introduced his Eight Hours Bill, and was supported by Mr Seddon on each occasion. The Bill did hardly anything more than declare that eight hours should be a day’s work, and 48 hours a week’s work. It had only one clause and was introduced in a few words. Sir Robert Stout, who was then Premier, supported the Bill ou the ground that New Zealand was likely to become a manufacturing country, and that it was necessauy to look after the physical well-being of the working classes. That was in 1885, when the proposal was defeated, and in 1886 it was? agaiij denounced as “vicious,” ‘‘ intolerable ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ oppressive. ” In 1887 Sir George Grey took up the proposal, when the Bill passed its second reading, but had to be dropped, appearing again in 1889 in charge of Mr E. M. Taylor, of Sydenham. It passed its third reading in the House, but failed to. make any further progress. In 1891 Mr W. P. Reeves introduced an eighthours Bill, but it failed to reach the Statute Book. However, the Ballance Government affirmed the principle in a clause of the Factories Act, and Mr Seddon had a clause in his Mining Bill in the first year of his Ministry providing that eight Jiours constitute a day’s work in the mines. Thus the eiglit-hour day ■ was first introduced into New Zealand, and year by year the principle became more widely endorsed, and has been accepted throughout the land. Unfortunately there have been agitations in recent years by

people with extreme views to have the working day cut down considerably, but the great majority of people are not in favour of such a move. There is no country in the world where fairer and more reasonable labour legislation has been adopted, and though there have been occasions when the industrial peace of the country has been seriously disturbed by strikes, the average 'wordier is not favourable to such methods being resorted to when disputes arise between employers and employees. In observing Labour Day each year we hope that workers realise that a great deal has been done by legislators to ( make life more pleasant for them, and that New Zealand is one of the happiest countries in the world for the wage-earner. Those people who travel abroad return to the Dominion convinced that life here is much happier than in the Old World countries and that each 'worker in New Zealand has far greater opportunities if he has the will and ambition to make the most of them. The eight-hour day enables workers to find time for healthy recreation and also to study and train in order to qualify for better posts. They owe a great deal to the men who clung to the eight-hour principle until it was adopted throughout the land, but they should remember that the legislators of the eighties and nineties assumed that those who were to benefit by the.shorter hours of work would enter whole-heartedly into their tasks and would give their best services to' their employers,.