HOURS OF LABOR.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1663, 26 August 1873, Page 8 (Supplement)

HOURS OF LABOR.

(From the Nelson Colonist, August 22.)

Among the inducements held out to the English working-man to emigrate to New Zealand that of not being required to work go many hours each day has not been the least attractive. The agricultural laborer accustomed to toil the year round from dawn to dark, and the artizan whose hours were from six to six, compelling him in winter to begin work long before day and continue into the darkness of night, contemplate the prospect of eight hours work with feelings of delight such as might move a slave who was about to be delivered from bondage. Weary with his day's employment when a man at last managed to make ■ his way to his family for rest, no desire remained for indulgence in the sweets of social intercourse. Nothing was left but a craving for the mere animal enjoyments of stimulant and rest, and the fireside was habitually deserted for the public house, where in false and unhealthy excitement a temporary relief was found from the depressing effects of overwork producing a tired body and brain. Complaint was constant by the promoters of mechanics institutes and other agencies for the elevation of the masses that those for whom they were intended seldom came, and when they did come, it was not to study or inform thenieelves on questions useful in their calling or elevating in their tendencies, but rather to substitute the ephemeral excitement of the highly colored romance for the scarcely more debasing driok. Ifc was seldom considered by the managers of these societies that the man whose body is exhausted and power of concentration gone by work too much prolonged, was no longer in a state to steadily pursue a train of thought, and that their disappointment was due, not to the absence of inuate power or desire for knowledge, but to the imperfect organisation of labor, nor could they see that hence sprung the hindrance to technical education which has been felfc necessary to enable the British workman to maintain. his old ascendency, though his so-called sensual habits have frequently been set down as the cause of his neglecting to acquire sufficient scientific knowledge to keep him in the first rank of the world's industrial champions. The congregation of great numbers of men in a single factory, characteristic of the industry" of modern times, has been followed by the benefit to employer and consumer of producing by the sub-division of labor the cheapest and beat articles ; but on the employed the wearing monotomy of constantly repeating a single act in which his Bkill is pre-eminent has rendered long hours far more depressing in their influence. "When men followed their occupation in email numbers the greater variety of the operations they were obliged to understand aud perform might prevent the same perfect finish being achieved, yet the workman himself was less injured by long hours than when be is occupied the whole day through Jn watching a machine and supplementing its performance by some simple acts only capable of being executed by an intelligent being though their constant repetition reduces the man intellectually to a condition in which he is almost incapable of thought and becomes little more than a piece of animated mechanism. The course taken on this question by the associations of workmen in the strikes which have of late years been so frequent is a cheering evidence of something being considered by them Buperior to the acquisition of large wages. .In many instances the employers have been willing to concede a higher rate of wages provided the men would consent to work fov the same number of hours with such overtime in addition as the managers of the factory might think proper to demand. Conscious of the pressing need for relaxation as well as mere rest the battle has been fought and won-more on this basis than on that of money gain, an<l the noble example set by the north of England artizans in the nine hours movement has been successfully followed in many parts of the country. By objectors it has been asserted that if shorter hoiirs were granted the extra time at command would not be employed in a useful way. The unfortunate tendency of men with money and leisure to indulge in barbarous sports and to frequent scenes of dissipation.has been the theme of many who have written on this subject. It seems never to have occurred to them to consider the debasing effect gf exhausting labor, nor would they admit the probability of better habits being formed when, in place of "■holidays occurring at rare intervals, each day would furnish time enough for some innocent and healthy pursuit. Instances are already numerous where men have taken to a course of useful study, sometimes purely for the cultivation of the mind, and often to acquire an accurate knowledge of the scientific principles .on which their avocation is based, thus preparing the way by the addition of theory to practice for further improvements and discoveries. The- advance of culture among men with some leisure may not unfairly be estimated from the number of really excellent public speakers who have arisen among artizan?, though they labor under the

disadvantage of their opportunities coming late in life, their early days having passed in unremitting toil. With a father anxious for his children's welfare, and possessed of sufficient time in the evening to aid and encourage the studies of his family, the. advance of the rising generation cannot fail to be secured. The young will also learn to use their time out of Working hours, and so be spared many temptations to which their less fortunate parents are exposed. Men of high training who have spent many years in active business often find on retirement that days crawl along wearily, so no one need wonder if the recently emancipated workman is not at once able to make the best use of his new found treasure of time. That shorter hours will lead to a permanent increase in the cost of manufactures is commonly believed, yet even here there is reason to hope the result will not be unfavorable. Those who with ample opportunities have long and closely watched the amount and quality of work done under the long and short time system assert positively that men employed for only eight hours per day turn out in the course of a year more and better work than those engaged ten hours, and that overtime is ultimately an injury to the workman in health and the employer.in the quality of his goods. The fact of men who take contracts often working long hours is pointed to as conclusively proving what their opinions are. We tfake leave to. think it does nothing of the kind. It proves no more than the ease with which men will sometimes be induced for the sake of securing a temporary increase of their earnings to deprive themselves of those hours when they ought to be recruiting their strength. The question rather is, how long can a man subject himself to excessive toil without diminishing his future power of work ? and the answer will be found in the fact that if ever a workman habitually temperate is tempted into excess it is when he has by overwork so lowered his vital energies as to induce him to attempt their restoration by the excessive use of stimulants. The workman's health and strength are his capital, and if expended lavishly in early life, he is left a broken and prematurely old man at an age when he might by the exercise of more discretion, or under more favorable circumstances, have been able to earn his bread with comforb to himself, instead of being a burden to others. In New Zealand the eight hours system is too well established to be easily broken down. Messrs. Brogden to a certain extent made the attempt with their imported navvies, from whom they endeavored to exact nine hours, and to this false step may in great measure be attributed the loss they have bsen compelled to endure by men leaving them whose passages they had paid from England. , Working on the same railways with men who were on the eight hours system, the imported laborers naturally fancied they were unjustly treated, and sought to be placed on an equality with their tellows. Public sympathy went with them, and this was a healthy sign of the secure continuance in the Colony of this great aid to the moral and social elevation of the working classes, and of the certainty that those who may be induced to come among us need never apprehend being deprived of the inestimable boon of short hours.