THE SWEATING COMMISSION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8966, 17 April 1890, Page 3

THE SWEATING COMMISSION.

THE FIRST DAY’S PROCEEDI GS. . Messrs J. R. Blair and D. P. Fisher, the gentlemen who were appointed to act In Wellington with Mr .Tames Fulton, M.H.R., as a “Sweating Commission,’’ mot that gentlemen at the Exchange Buildings shortly after 10 o’clock yesterday morning. It appeared, however, that there had been some misunderstanding, the Parliamentaiy Buildings having been announced as The place at which the Commission would whereas rooms had been secured at the Exchange Buildings. Both Mr Fisher and Mr Blair concurred in the opinion that the Parlia* mentaty Buildings would be better, and it waa accordingly decided to adjourn thence. An hour later the Commissioners met in the •Cabinet room, and the Commission was read, its principal clause being that defining the scope of the Commissioners, namely, to in- • quheinto “the mode and terms in and on which persons are employed in shops, in wholesale and retail trades and manufacturing business establishments, and in hotels and other licensed houses of public resort in New Zealand ; and, in particular, as to the mode and terms in and on which persons are ■engaged in supplying or making goods or articles for the owners or occupiers of such ■ shops or wholesale or retail trading or manufacturing places of business or otherwise, and upon the relations generally of employer and employed, and the best machinery for determining matters and questions arising ►between them and relating to thoir respective interests.” The Chairman remarked that the object of the Commission was broadly to take into consideration the relations between employers and employe'!. That was very wide, of course ; the Commission was simply called a Sweating Commission for convevienoe. Mr Blair suggested that it would be well to announce some definite programme of proceeding. As Mr Fisher could not attend during the ■evenings of the present week, it was decided to sit in the daytime only, taking witnesses at any convenient hour of the day ; and that next week Commission should sit in the evenings, if necessary, to take evidence. A SHIRT-MAKER’S TROUBLES. The first witness waa a woman working as . a shirt-maker, She stated that she was paid, for cutting out and making, 7a a dozen for cotton shirts, and Ss and 9s a dozen for Crimean and Oxford shirts, the warehousemen for whom she worked finding the huttpns and cotton and other material. At this rate of remuneration (which she complained was not high enough) she made on an average from 25s to 30s » week herself, working from 8 to S, and finishing the shirts in the evening after tea. It took her about ■eleven hours, in fact, to do twelve shirts, hnt one must be a very good hand to do that. She had to out them out in addition to making them. Some days, of course, she could not do so much, so that the average of a dozen a day could not be kept up. The average earnings wore 25s to 30s a week. The prices, however, were undercut by -others, and consequently very frequently she was refused work. She employed a girl whom she paid 12s a week, and occasionally an outside hand, whom she paid 2s a dozen less than the warehousemen paid, witness ■having to do the cntting.out. A year or two ago she could make £2 10a a week, because the prices were higher. Her husband earned £2 5a per week, and they had •six children. For nightshirts she was paid 15a per dozen, and it took nearly a day to make a dozen. No attempt had been made to harass her into a reduction of price. THE EARLY CLOSING ASSOCIATION. Mr0.,8. Robinson, a draper’s assistant, was examined by Mr D. P. Fisher, and said he waa a member of the Early Closing Association, which he represented before the Commission. It was rot necessary to have shops kept open at night, because people could make their purchases during the eight hours places would bo open during the day. Grocers, drapers, and moat other employes in shops (excepting the ironmongers and large drapers, who usually closed at 6) worked from 8 a.m. to about 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and longer on Saturday, He knew of cases in which women bad been permanently laid up through having to stand so many hours in the day. They were allowed to sit, though seats were not usually provided. Physically, of course, it affected the male employ da ; and the women, further, bad to go home at 10 on Saturday nights, which waa uudeairable. He knew of a young man whose lungs were permanently injured by the dust of a shop. Mr Blair suggested that bad ventilation was a more serious cause of injury in . shops than dust. Mr Robinson said it was dust in this case. About 25 per cent of the Saturday trade would probably be done after 6 p.m. The people who shopped at night wore not all of the working class ; the proportion of better class people was astonishing. A deputation headed by the Mayor waa going to interview the various employers on the early closing question, and no doubt the result of those interviews would be laid :beforo the Commission. , Any other day than Saturday would be suitable for payment of wages. At To Aro House, for instance, where he was : employed, they were paid monthly. He thought all female employes should be brought under the operation of the Factory, Act; and that the best way to achieve the objects of the Association was first by educating the public, and subsequently by legislation. The larger d-apers of the city closed at C every evening. Ho - believed the remuneration of drapers’ assistants was very good in Wellington as compared with that in other parts of New Zealand, and in Australia. He did not think it was a fact that any number of girls could he obtained without wages. It was a fact, however, that a good many worked at dressmaking for half a-crown a week, or for nothing for the first year. With respect to saleswomen, girls of say 16 years got about half.a-crown a week for the first year, and were raised half-a-orown a week afterward. There was a commission attached to the work, which probably increased the remuneration by about half a-crown a week. ' Mr Fisher pointed out that these young women were not really graduating for anything. Mr Blair : Yon forget, Mr Fisher, that the head women are artists, and artists only appear occasionally. In further evidence, Mr Robinson said the head woman would get £3 or £3 10s a week. In the dressmaking department girls got on an average 15s to 17s fid per week, and would not get any more than £1 unless they became head of the department. Mr Fu'ton asked whether there was a practice in Wellington of taking girls on for nothing, for half-a crown a week fora year, and then discharging them. Mr Robinson said it was done in other places, he waa aware, but not in Wellington us far as he knew. Mr Fisher: Well, I know it is done in Wellington, but I can’t possibly bring the evidence. Mr Robinson, in further examination, said there waa no difficulty in obtaining apprentices. Mr Blair: Is there any attraction in the employment, then ? The wages are not high, la it the gentility of it ? _ . _ \ Mr Robinson : Well, the Colonial girl doesn’t like service, you know ; she’d rather go into a milliner’s or dressmaker’s shop.. At service they get £2O or £3O a year and are found, but they are not allowed out at

night and on Sunday, I suppose it is, as you say, the gentility. In answer to Mr Fulton, Mr Robinson said the sanitary ar. rannomenta of all the places he was acquainted with wore very good. He should propose that all shops, with one or two exceptions, should be closed at 6 o’clock in town and In country. The proposal was to introduce stronger measures than those embodied in the Shop Honrs Bill. Mr Blair suggested that the objects of the Association might be achieved by educating the public without the necessity of legislation. At this stage the Commissioners adjourned until half-past 2. ' STORY OF A TROUSERS-FINISHER. Mrs Nelson, a tronsers-finisber, waa examined next. She stated that she was paid 7d per pair for finishing, and usually did four or five pairs a day. Many times she had worked four or five hours at home after leaving her regular employment. She used to make 14s or 15s a week, and had made as muoh as 21s in a week. These earnings included the work at home. Eighteen shillings a week was the largest wage paid to favoured employes at the factory where the witness worked, and they were paid by the week. Her employer tested his apprentices fairly, and kept them on after their probationary term if they made good progress. At the factory where she worked 2d a pair less was paid than was paid at Thompson and shannon's, and she did not think the work in that factory was any better. She thought that for working eight boors a day girls should get 25a a week. Work was frequently given out at evening which had to be brought finished by 8 next morning. The most skilled hands would earn about 22s or 23s a week on piece. The •principal requisite in small factories was generally speed in doing the work. Coat workers made a good deal more, and one hand the witness knew earned 30s a week, being very quick. She knew a good many girls who had to pay 12s a week for their board and only earned 14s or Iss a week, and sometimes nothing. Most of the girls, however, lived with their parents, and two or three had come from Nelson to get work. These latter were earning very good wages, and they had their evenings and Sundays to themselves. The witness emphatically answered in the negative a question by Mr Fulton “Do think such girls would make better wives ? ” though she qualified it by excepting the girls io whom she was referring. She considered eight hours a day quite long enough to work iu a factory, and knew of women who were injured by machine work, because prices were so low that they had to work the machine very fast. Sewing machines were not worked by machinery in Wellington. TYPOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. William McGirr, President of the local branch of the Typographical Society, waa the next witness. He complained of the number of boys employed in the trade. In one establishment in which seven boys were at work, receiving an aggregate wage of £2 6s per week, six of there boys had to work extra on Thursday evenings without pay. Three females used to be employed as compositors there, and, until recently, the boys were given work to take home. In another establishment one man was employed as foreman, and the other. en ployds mere boys who were not legally bound. There were a few compositors, competent men, out of employment in Wellington, and the places of all these boys could be filled by men. He thought the Apprentice Act should be enforced; and that bova should be compelled to pass the fifth or sixth standards before they were apprenticed. That, he believed, was done in one or two offices. One newspaper office in town was what was called “ a rat office,” though the men there earned, he believed, about £3 a week. la another newspaper office they only had two men, while another had 22. Mr Fulton pointed out that the complaint against boy labour was universal, and he asked what was to be done to remedy the evil ? Mr Blair : Stop the production, Mr Chairman. Mr MoGirr said he thought that should be done. He saw no reason against the employment of women if they were reasonably paid. Mr Blair said his. experience was that female labour was worth about 30s a week as compared with men. Mr MoGirr, in answer to further qnesMods, said the Union bad done a .good deal of good to the craft. He had no doubt the public themselves were largely to blame for not discriminating in the quality of the work supplied to them. Mr Blair asked whether the position was that work was so cheap that boy labour was absolutely forced on employers ? Mr McGirr said no doubt; but the employers started that in the first place by doing cheap work. In farther examination Mr MoGirr said young journeymen applying for membership of the Society were admitted on the favourable testimony ot the board members in their shopa. There was a defined programme whieh an apprentice had to carry out. The association had never aided boys to get a good training. Mr Blair laid stress on the neglect of the associations to provide for the training of apprentices, and expressed an opinion that this was a legitimate call for legislative: action. The Legislature stepped in and said doctors, lawyers, and others should go through a' certain training, and it ought to be the same with printers. Apprentices, he knew himself, were very difficult to deal with, for the reason that they knew they could join the Society if they simply served their indentures oat. Mr MoGirr said the country offices were to blame, no doubt. 1 He thought the Society would be able to deal with the’ city offices, but what was wanted was some one to travel round the country offices and educate the people thero. He blamed canvassers a good deal,' also, for cutting prices down. . 4 This concluded the day’s proceedings, and at half past 4 the Commissioners adjourned until -this morning, when Mr London,' the secretary of the local branch of Amalgamated Railway Servants, will give evidence. Mr Fulton intimated that he had refnsed, while in the South, to go into the general grievances of the railway employes, holding that to be a function for a separate inquiry. ■