SWEATED INDUSTRIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13886, 25 April 1907, Page 6

SWEATED INDUSTRIES.

The interesting relic of the Exhibition

in the shape of the English sweated industries display now on view at the Dunedin Town Hall is attracting, it. is satisfactory to note, a public attention which should' compensate the Department of Labour for its enterprise and trouble in sending the exhibit to the different centres. The display has an undoubted educational value. It is a mute and pathetic witness of conditions of labour of which we happily know

little in this part- of the world. It is over sixty years now since Thomas Hood's " Song of the Shirt,'' first pub-

lished anonymously in a Christmas number of Punch, rang like a tocsin

i through • Britain, and since then tha ; number of comfortable people who have ; shuddered at the stinging bitterness of [ the unforgettable cry expressed in its i simple and tragically realistic linos has been legion. But unfortunately they L may still shudder at the actual condi- • tions of labour iu the Old Country by , virtue of which the so-called "sweated , industries " flourish at. .the present time, • for theso have evidently improved but little as compared with those which gave the poet inspiration. The observer is struck by the immense variety of the articles catalogued in this "sweated industries" exhibit. They range from clay pipes to dolls' heads, from chainmaking to almost every description of garment worn by man; woman, or child. The rates of pay, the hours of work, the possible week's earnings—all theso aro set out very clearly, and constitute a striking commentary on the lot of a considerable proportion of the workers in older lands that the New Zealander who baa not previously given the subject attention may well find it difficult to realise. To take a random item, one instance of the scores catalogued, for a child's frock the munificent remuneration given the worker is fourpence, but by working twelve hours a day she may earn as much as 8s a week for turning out articles sold retail in London for 3s Gd each, and fetching in New Zealand about 7s Gd each. To gaze, however, upon these numerous exhibits, the actual product of the miserable conditions specified, is to have brought home very forcibly to the mind the fact that the worker in New Zealand has, in comparison a very great deal to congratulate himself or herself upon. That the articles to be seen iu this interesting exhibit could possibly be made at the prices"' indicated upon them is obviously the first point that takes most- visitors by surprise, but as to the genuineness of the figures set out there is, of course, no question, for it seems every article shown was actually made at the rates quoted. The second impression of the visitor is one of profound commiseration for all who aro dependent for bread on labour under such conditions. The facts brought under their notice in this striking manner by the Department of Labour should have a tendency to make colonial workers more satisfied with their lot than they frequently appear to be. But tljey will assuredly not tend to make the worker less hostile to the capitalist, especially if the former is socialistically inclined, as he often is. The indiscriminate denunciation of capital as tho root of all the evils through which the industry of the worker is exploited and sweated is, however, an idle practice as far as it professes to indicate where a remedy may be sought. The economic dilemma involved here has baffled many an acute intellect, though in liis preface to the catalogue of the exhibit under discussion Mr Trcgear makes light of it in a few broad generalisations. New Zealand has been in a fortunate position, and has been able by legislation to guard against a "sweating" evil. But where, as in the Old Country, such an evil has long had a footing the caso

is different. As has been pointed out, in this colon? we have no unrestricted competition," and, according to the editor of the Handbook of the Sweated Industries Exhibition in London, "sweating follows unrestricted competition as naturally and inevitably as pain, follows disease." The fact that women form so large a proportion \of those who endure the burden' of "sweating," and that too often "in poverty, hunger, and dirt," makes their lot only the sadder. - The holding of these exhibitions, which throw so strong a light on a crying evil, can at least be considered a hopeful sign, and may serve to speed somewhat the work of reform in stimulating an, irresistible popular desire to eradicate that evil. It was an excellent idea that led to .the showing of the present exhibit throughout the colony.