SYDNEY SWEATING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 5417, 21 July 1906, Page 1

SYDNEY SWEATING.

An exhaustive report has been issued by a special committee of the Labor Council on sweated labor in Sydney. Its lindings sot forth that slavery does exist in Sydney to-day. Women and little children are daily drawn out of the slums and made to pass under the hammer of the inexorable auctioneer employed by capital. The crack of the slave owners’ whip-is legally forbidden but daily thousands of unwilling slave go to (heir allotted tasks to the stunting of their physical and mental growth, and often to ultimate destrue tion, body and soul. Many of the cases investigated, especially those instances in which the children are victimised slaves, disclose such a hideous system of brutality us to almost justify the denial of our boasted civilisation, while the term Christian applied to the city where employers thrive on downright slave dealing is ah awful misnomer.

Our search disclosed heartless conditions in connection with the dairy ing industry and boiling down establishments loudly proclaim the presence of the sweater. Jam, biscuit, lolly, and pickle factories arc dens under his directions, and the fruit canning industries, potteries, and kindred industries claim their toll. Your committee, is appalled at the deep-dyed sweating that nourishes in various abhorrent forms. Girls were employed from one to two years for nothing', nnd were afterwards paid 2/6 a week. There were instances where dismissal took place when the probationary period ended. One clothing factory was described as not fit for a pig. Ihe wages paid were 7/6 for -18 hours.