FACTORIES AND SHOPS BILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8862, 21 July 1890, Page 3

FACTORIES AND SHOPS BILL

(Fbom Ocfi Own Cohbespokdknt.)

Wellington, Juno 20.

One of the most important bills of the session—the Factories and Shops Bill—was circulated on Saturday, It bus been introduced by tho Hon. Mr Hislop, and ia in pact the outcome of tho inquiry conducted by the Sweating Commission, but also contains provisions for early closing and regulating shops. It is, in addition, a consolidating bill, and repeals the Employment of Females and Other 3 Acts 1831 aud the Amendment Acts of 1884 and ISBS. The act ia to apply only to factories and shops within cities aud boroughl, though power is Riven to the Governor to extend its operation at tho request of the local authority to auy county, town district, or road district. The measure i 3 divided into three parts, the first of which deals with the regulation and inspection of factories and work rooms; the second with the closing and regulation of shops, and the third is general, contiiuing a few miscellaneous provisions and providing penalties for infringements of the act. Power is given to appoint inspectors and medical authorities for tho purposes of the act, and every owner or occupier is bound under a penalty of £20 to give the inspectors full written particulars about his factory or work room. If all the requirements of the act have been complied with, the inspector then issues a certificate and records tho factory in his register. This registration of factories is made compulsory upon payment of a fee. Very full powers are given to the inspectors to enter and inspect factories by day or night, accompanied by a constable, if need be, and make such inquiries a 9 may be necessary to see thattheactis being complied with. Power is also given to enter schools, where persons employed in factories are being educated. The occupier of each factory or work room is required to keep a record for the information of the inspector of the names of all his employe:?, together with nges of all those under 20, and also a record of the kind of work done by each. Records of the work done outside the factory are also to be kept, and the names and addresses of the inspector and medicil authority for the district are to ba conspicuously postsd ia each The inspectors are to forward reports to the Colonial Secretary, who will lay an annual report before Parliament, giving the numbar of persons employed in factories in New Zealand, their age, sex, wages, and various other particulars. , , The sanitary provisions ot tho act are very stringent, and are to be administered at the discretion of the local boards of health. Factories are to be kept clean, properly lighted and ventilated, and not overcrowded, a certain space being allowed to each worker according to the nature of the work. Except in newspaper offices, no person under 18 years, and no woman shall, except on Saturdays, half-holidays, or when it appears to the Minister after duo inquiry that the exigencies of trade require tho suspension of the provisions of this section, be employed continuously in any factory or workroom for more than five hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal. No person is to be allowed to take his meals in the factory, and in all but very small factories a special room is to be provided for meals. Bakehouses are specially dealt with, and the provisions of the act relating to them aro to be enforced by the board of health or local authority. Bakehouses are to be limewashed, and are not to be used as sleeping places; while there are heavy penalties for using bakehouses unless certaia sanitary regulations are complied with. Upon the age of employes the act is very explicit. Thejages are fixed under which persons shall be employed in certain deleterious trad-: s, such as watchmaking. No person shall employ in auy factory or work room any female or any male under the age of 16 years for more than 48 hours in any one week in preparing or manufacturing articles far trade or sale. Power is, however, given to tho Colonial Secretary under certain circumstances to suspend this clause by Gazette notice in respect of any particular business for a period not exceeding six months. No one under 14 is to be employed in any factory or work room, and no one uuder 15 shall be so employed unless such person has pissed the Fourth Standard of education. Persons under 16 are not to be employed without a certificate of fitness for employment from the medical officer for the district. No boy under 14, and no girl under 16, shall work in any factory or work room between the hours of 6 p.m. aud 6 o.m. No boy under 16, and no girl under 18, shall work as a type-setter in any printing office for longer than eight hours, nor between the hours of 6 in the evening and 6 in the morning, except in a case of emergency, with the permission of an inspector, and then only on condition that for the 12 hoiiM preceding, and for 12 hours following such night work they shall not be employed. Every woman and every person under 18 are to have holidays on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, EasterlWonday, her Majesty's Birthday, and any other day set apart by the proclamation of the Governor as a public holiday ; also, half-holiday every Saturday afternoon from 2 o'clock. Ordinary working day wages are to be paid to the women, and persons onder 18 for sueli holidays. Fart 2 deals with the early closing of shops. All shops other than booksellers and news agents' shops, chemists' shops, coffee houses, confectioners, eating houses, fish and oyster chops, fruit and vegetable shops, restaurants, and tobacconists' shops shall be closed on each and every evening of the week, except on Saturdays, at the hour of 6 o'clock, and on Saturday evening at the hour of 10 o'clock, provided that on the day immediately preceding any public holiday any such shop may ba kept open until 10 o'clock in tho evening. Any city or borough may make bye-laws for limiting the hourß of Ehop3 exempted above and for closing other shops at an earlier hour than provided by the act for limiting total houre of employes' labour to eight per day. A woman or a person under 18 years of age ehall not be employed in or about a shop for ft longer period than 52 hours including meal times in any one week. A woman or a person under 18 years of age shall not to the knowledge of the shopkeeper of the Bhop bo employed in a shop who has been previously on the same day employed in a factory or work room for the number of hours permitted by law, or for a longer period than will completo such number of hours. Sitting accommodation is to be provided, and the inspector is given full power to enter and inspect every shop. Fart 3 of the act provides various penalties, amongst others a penalty of £100 for the death or injury of an employe by neglect of the employer, the whole or any part of which sum may be paid to the injured person or his famiiy as the Colonial Secretary may direct. Parents are made liable to a penalty in certain cases for allowing their children-to be employed contrary to tho act. Amoog the miscellaneous clauses is the following:—"A declaration by a medical authority for the district that he has personally examined a person employed in a factory or work room in that district and believes him to be under the age set forth in the declaration shall be admissible in evidence of the age of that person."