"SLANDER" SILENCED.
In ari Obscure, out-of-the-way corner of last Tuesday's "Post," as if ashamed to rear its head m superior company, the diligent searcher for news and such other things that one .seeks m a daily paper, might have found the following. , GIRLS PAINT 'AT WORK. WE, as Employees of Petone Laundry, parried on by Mrs Couchman, think it is only our duty to Deny the statement made by- the Inspector of Factories as being overworked and under-paid. We also deny any knowledge of girls faihting at their tables. .Some of us have heen m the employ since the starting of the Laundry, and have always been treated with the utmost Consideration by our Employer. . (Signed) J. Stevenson, Mrs Dowsett, Myrtle Dows-ett, G. Kitt, Olive Ibell, Maud M'lntosh, Ada Edlin, Fanny Scanlon, Mabel Webster, Violet Hope. Something of the sort might reasonably be expected" to follow the exposures made m the S.M.s Court yesterday week, concerning the manner m which this sweating den at Petone was conducted. Mrs Couchirian's husband, when every hand arid certainly every ■ tongue ..was against him m the court, ehdeavored to get a word m edge-wayS to' the effect that Inspector Lindsay was all sorts and shades of a liar," 'but being Mr Couchman, thel husband of Mrs Elizabeth Couchman, lie subsided on being told that he had .pleaded guilty, and not being Mrs Couchman, but only her husband,, what else could the poor man do but Subside and go aWay and wait a couple, of days before hitting ori the happy plan of publishing m the daily paper a de-. nial, sighed by . the sweated laundreses, thaVgirls did not faint, and that they were treated with the utmost consideration by their employer. It is the voice of Jacob, but the hairy hand of T.saxv plays a prominent part m the deal, and it looks • a "cold deck" anyhow. Besides, how does anyone know that if Myrtle, Violet, Olive, Maud and Ada and all the other tender flowers, shrubs and such had not nut their si (matures to the "testimonial" that Mrs Couchman, or Mrs Oouchnwrn's husband, would not have promptly fired ;them out of the hot house into a cold world to wiil-ber m the blast ; and girls do not get employment too readily, even m Wellington. After all it is gratifying to know that girls do not faint ot their work m this laundry, hv.t wh^t would have been more pl_* , v-:. , *t 1 if it could be | honestly proved, would have heen tho ' assertion that Mrs Gouchmafl and he?
connubial couch-mate have not been m the habit <of readying their books and thus attempting to hood-wink the law aad bluff Inspectors a-gainst finding out that the Couchman .crowd were swindling their employees out of their overtime dues. Hearts will go out m pity to those sweated laundresses, who hope to curry favor and probably avert further chousing, m tlie way of overtime pay, by whitewashing Mrs Couchman and her spruikimg spouse. Why, did not the Couchmans, if they are so convinced that there is a Conspiracy against them, sue the Inspector for slander, or prosecute him for libel, and thus give the opportunity of thoroughly investigating whether the Petone laundry is a sweating deri or not.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19070223.2.17
Bibliographic details
NZ Truth, Issue 88, 23 February 1907, Page 4
Word Count
543"SLANDER" SILENCED. NZ Truth, Issue 88, 23 February 1907, Page 4
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