OVERWORK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 745, 11 June 1886, Page 19

OVERWORK.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND -MAIL. Sib, —We see by the newspapers' that the police are very active in enforcing the laws which regulate the number of hours during which girls and boys may be employed in factories ; employers of labor must not keep the employed at work five minutes beyond the prescribed hour ; the employed, however willing, must not stay five minutes to finish a . particular piece of "work—as the clock strikes work must be put away. And I have no doubt legislation in this direction is very right. The employed should be protected; and we now see that Mr Bradshaigh-Bradshaw is about to go further into the matter and ask the House for more legislation. Did it ever occur to him, or any members of the House, that there are numbers of the employed not working in factories not included in the class for whom laws have hitherto been made, but who require protection just as much 1 Those who think at all on the way the world wags must see how almost everything is sacrificed to speed. No one now is content to wait. The telegraph and telephone have brought this about. Everything must be done in the least possible time, and there is no stemming the tide which has set in in this direction. A man who wants to get on must go with the stream. If a merchant or tradesman has to be communicated with, we hear ring him | up ! and if the reply is he is not ov the telephone, why then ring up some one who is. And in order to keep ,up the pace, what do we see 1 A growing tendency to turn night into day, to make j seven working days in a week, and as a V"j necessary consequence to overwork the j employed. And this brings me to the other employed who require protection— j bank clerks, merchants' clerks, telegraph | and telephone clerks, Post Office clerks, j and servants. Ask the doctors of this or any other city about the health of these people, how many clerks come to them weary and ill with j overwork, to be patched up, to have j some life and energy put into them to j enable them to keep up the pace—to enable them to put in eleven or twelve hours out of the twenty-four at the office. Numbers of them can't stop to recruit their health. They would be passed in the race if they did. They must go on ';\ and if they are working for banks or, other public companies, for what are they working? To enable the share-; holders to get a little more dividend ; and then, at the annual meeting, the Directors blow the trumpets, declare a. dividend of 10' or 15 per cent! great; congratulations ! unparalleled success !; splendid management! And the share-i holders take and spend their 15 per cent.,not thinking for a moment that—to parody Tom Hood—" 'Tis not dividends you're spending now, it's human creatures' lives." Why should banks and other companies be able to overwork their clerks when factories cannot overwork their hands T Ought they not to employ, and be compelled to employ enough clerks, so that the work can be done within office hours, and' let the shareholders be content with rather less dividend. And why should not Government be compelled to do the same thing ? Why are not theii departments so organised that the worli may be done within proper hours 1 We know these Government clerks are treated by their superiors as mere machines, oi parts of a machine. But can «ven machine* be kept always running without detriment ?■ They wear out. And s< again I would say to Government "It is not wheels and cogs you are wear ing out; it is human creatures' lives.' Well, then, let Mr Bradshaw and hi followers go boldly to work against th over working of the employed. Th employed can in few—very few—case stand up for themselves. The leas .whisper of grumbling or complaintdismissal. And let those 1 who wi«

to help the employed sstand up - boldly against making seven working days in a Week. £here is some law against Sunday trading, and why ' should the Government break that law by keeping its officials at the Post Office at work with mails on Sundays, and others at work at the telegraph and tele- , phone 1 What a monstrous thing this - last new concession is—Telephone Ex- . * change open all Sunday—and the news- • papers think it such a good thing, chiefly because some of us may want to summon a doctor hurriedly on Sunday. Our forefathers did very well without this hurry 5 We have done very well without it till now, and why should we keep clerks at work on the day of rest for such slight reasons. If the doctors have any regard for what is right, they ought to be no parties to the working of telephone clerks ■on Sundays, but should on that day, if if they have telephones, disconnect 'themselves from the exchanges. Look, too, how Sunday work at the Post Office has increased of late. The San Francisco mail is always made up here on a Sunday ; the Direct mail often comes in on a Sunday ; and then, as on the last occasion, people are, as it were, invited to work. The San Francisco mail was delayed in order that, merchants and others might have time to reply by that mail to letters received the same day by Direct mail. And what consideration or concessions do the Post Office clerks get 1 The Postmaster-General is looked upon as one who is inclined to treat the Civil servant well, and it is to be hoped he looks after his department in this respect. Our Post Office was for a long time shamefully undermanned, but at last an improvement was made, and the public are better served now, and the clerks must be better able to do their work. There is still room for improvement, but of course economy must be studied. There is no dividend to come out of the concern. Under-Secretaries must keep down the expenses of their department, and the wheels and cogs of the machinery under their-control must be kept working a few more hours a day. They are only wheels and cogs, it doesn’t matter how -you work 'them. I have spoken of Sunday trading. It is much to be regretted that so ' little is now thought of Sunday, but even those who do not look upon that day as one in any way to be devoted to religion ought to know that rest from business is needed, that men and women cannot go on working all day and everyday, and they ought to help to secure to the employed one rest day out of the seven. It may seem perhaps to many that to ask for legislation in these matters is unnecessary, but if they will think a moment I am sure they will see the necessity, bank managers are powerless. They are servants of the Directors, that is of the shareholders. Merchants are to a great extent powerless. They are carried along with the tide. Government is to a great extent powerless, being lamentably weak in that portion, at all -events, of administration. It is in the hands of its permanent secretaries and under-secrstaries. I hope. Sir, you will be able to find room for this letter, as the subject of overwork is an important one. I can speak feelingly upon it, having myself suffered from its effects in the Old -Country.—l am, &c., Chas. P. Powles. ‘Wellington, 2nd June.