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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16466, 19 June 1919, Page 2

• It is most satisfactory to find that the British Government is taking serious steps to improve the conditions of the workers in that country. According to a cablegram received on Wednesday the Minister of Labour is introducing Bills to make the working hours in factories 48 per week and in shops 50, while a measure providing a minimum wage is also to bo introduced. At the present time work in Britain generally begins at (i a.m. and those who have lived in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire can well remember the sound of the buzzers in the dark of the cold winter mornings and the clatter of r tho clogs on tho pavements. In many cases the workers who do not live close to their work have to be out of bed by 5 o’clock or soon after and work has for five months of the year to be begun by artificial light. Strolling down to work at 8 o’clock, as is the habit in this Dominion, is a lord’s life compared with tho lot of the British worker, who year in and year out has to turn out before tho day is aired. One cannot believe that the work dono between 6 and 8 a.m. is very efficient and many employers have already reduced the hours to eight, without finding any marked diminution in output. Tho hours in many shops in Britain are also extremely long, 70 hours or more per week being worked in some cases. It has been proved hero that such long hours are quite unnecessary, thougli people will drift in oven if a shop 'is kept open till midnight. The proposed change to 48 and 60 hours in Britain will do much to improve £ho life of many British workers and everyone, in this country will wish for the Bills providing these reforms a rapid passage through the House. The provision of a minimum wage will also bo a change for the better, though its value will greatly depend on the sum fixed and tho vigour with which evasions of the provision are dealt with.