THE EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5131, 29 July 1878, Page 2

THE EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES ACT.

]Bt Telegraph.]

(fkosi odk own correspondent.)

Wellington, July 26th. The following report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Females Act was-, laid on the table of the House to-day :— The Commissioners appointed by His Excellency the Governor to inauire into the operations of an Act entitled The Employment o£ 1 emales Act, 1573, aad of the several amendments thereof, have closed their inquiry, and in returning the Commission with which His Excellency was pleased to honor them, report as follows: "That the several Acts lef erred to are necessary, and have mainly accomplished the wise purposes for which they were enacted. According to the testimony of the adultwomen, the law has worked a favourable change in the comfort, independence, and wellbeing of females employed in the Dunedin factories and work shops. Some of the womea who have for years been employed in Dunedin expressed their gratitude for the protection which the Legislature had secured for them by the limitation of the hours of labour, and for I the consequent improvement in their social I condition and physical health. The investigation shows that women cannot combine together as workmen do in their Trades Unions to protect themselves, and limit the hours of labour, In the ease of married women compelled to work ia factories for the support of their families, it. is especially necessary that the Legislature should step in to do for women what Trades Unions effect for workmen and others The Acts, as far as the limitation of labour is concerned, take a middle coiwse between those antagonistic forces termed ' meddling legislation 3 and 'freedom of labour,' and secures the in. terests of the public which are so vitally con. cerned in^ the health and social condition of women. The Commissioners are unanimous m the opinion that an alteration of the Actvhich would make the limitation a weekly one of 54 hours, instead of a daily one of eight hours, would certainlydefeat the objects of the Legislature. Ihe investigation shows, however, that thelaw is not efficiently carried out in many cases owing to the insufficient inspection of the workshops. The Commissioners are unanimous ia their opinion that the indifference or repugnance which is sometimes shown to carry oufc the provisions of the Acts limiting the hours o£ labour can only be guarded against by a thorough system of inspection. There are no difficulties in the way af securing the nonviolation of the laws in this particular. Any person having the right of entry into a workshop can with perfect facility determine whether children, young persons, and women are engaged Li work beyond the hours fixed by law. The investigation was extended to the sanitary arrangements of the workshops. Ifc will be seen from the reports of the inspeefcorsof nuisances that the convenience for the work people require consideration. Two of the worksnops inspected by the Commissioners were well ventilated and large in proportion to the number of hands employed. The whole of the arrangements in both were good. No doubt the employers find advantage in this. It must secure for them the best and most expert women, and on the other hand induces the women, by good conduct, to retain employment where their health, comfort, and respectability are studied. In another and extensive establishment the foul air, heated by furnaces below, vitiates the atmosphere of the crowded rooms above. The Commissioners would earnestly recommend that at least the cubic contents of the workrooms should be proportioned to the number of persons employed in them, and that generally the sanitary arrangements should be made satisfactory to tha medical officers of theBoards of Health. The Commissioners find that the violators of the law have had their offences practically condoned by mere nominal fines. This tends to render the law a dead letter where the employers choose to set it at defiance. It should be guarded against by fixing the minimum of penalty at - forty shillings for breach of the provisions of the Act. In respect of the registration of notice provided by the eighth section of the Act of 1875, the minimum penalty for non-registration should be LlO. The recommendation of Inspector Connell, that more stringent measuresshould be enacted for the regulation of the employment of girls in private houses, does not meet - with the concurrence of the Commissioners. The interpretation of ' work-roam,' by clause four or the Act of 2874, includes auy place where females are employed. Private houses*, therefore, where women, young persons, and children are employed for gain, come under the operation of the existing ln,w.

"Charles Kxight, " Chairman,"