The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1158, 7 February 1874, Page 15

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEB. 7.

There would seem to exist at the present day a general desire among the working classes to be relieved from the pressure of excessive labour. There is no reason, why we should regard with disapprobation this craving for leisure time, or deem it a sign that men ai*e becomiug more idle ar.d lesrf industrious. We may rather consider it an indication of the moral and intellectual 'advancement of humanity that men are beginning to obtain a clearer perception of what is necessary for their bodily and mental health. From the time that Adam was sentenced to obtain his bread by the sweat of his brow, work has been a concomitant of the terrestrial state of human beings ; and the exercise of the bodily powers and mental faculties in the endeavour to obtain a sufficiency of worldly goods and effects, or to obtain artistic skill or learning, is so far natural to human beings that those people who do no sort of work cannot be considered as among the happiest of their race. If, however, it is necessary ifor the health of body and mind that the physical and mental powers should be employed in doing work, it is certain that excessive labour is destructive of health, and productive of premature exhaustion of bodily and mental power. Laziness is disgusting, but to economise strength of body and mind is the action of a wise man. Acquisitions of wealth, or skill, or knowledge, cannot generally be considered fair equivalents for the loss of health. There are doubtless many people who, in the pursuit of wealth, or knowledge, or fame, work to a hurtful extent without being absolutely constrained to do so by circumstances. Those people who suffer from neglecting to economise their strength when they are able to do so, are not so much to be pitied as people who are forced to undertake immoderate labour in order to gain a bare subsistence. In this Province, where the eight-hour system generally prevails, out-door labourers can hardly be said to be subjected to an amount of labour which is injurious, but it would seem that in some of our towns, many people are forced to devote a disproportionate amount of their time to the service of their employers. People impelled, by the real or supposed exigencies of trade, to sacrifice health of body and mind in pursuit of a livelihood, may well be the objects of pity and commiseration, and an attempt of this class to obtain such leisure time as may be devoted to recreation, and the invigorating of the bodily and mental powers, well deserves the sympathy of the general public. The Early Closing movement has not as yet been attended with much success, but the agitation in its favour will not have been entirely fruitless, if it has awakened in employers a sense of the justice and desirability of affording their workpeople more leisure. Whether good results may be expected from. Governrrient action in behalf of the over-worked classes, will depend on circumstances. Undoubtedly there are dangers attendant on Government interference with the free sale and purchase of labour. As in the well known case of interference in a quarrel between husband and wife, the intruder will occasionally receive the thanks of neither party. Thus the women employed in cloth factories in Geelong, complain that the carrying out of the Female Labour Aot will inflict on the female operatives and their families great hardship and suffering, and pray Government that the Act, as far as they are concerned, shall not be enforced. Government may find it possible to regulate labour in large factories ; but if Government attempts to regulate labour in every shop, office, and private house, it imposes upon itself a task of probably insuperable difficulty, The sense of individual freedom would rebel against the amount of police interference which would be necessary to carry out an Act regelating labour i»

all cases, and the amount of disßimula* tion that would probably be practised by employers, and even by workpeople, in order to evade the Act, would have a demoralising effect upon the community. Probably, the difficult problem of how to avoid sacrificing human welfare at the shrine of Mammon will be solved eventually by the general advance of mankind in benevolence and intelligence.