The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JDNE 4, 1890.

Timaru Herald, Volume L, Issue 4860, 4 June 1890, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JDNE 4, 1890.

We notice that the Melbourne Aiji: bun commented on the cvidenco taken by the New Zen!nD<3 Sweating Con) mission who recently brought their labours to a close. Our readers can judge of the stylo of tho criticism from the following sentences: — "The Royal Commission on tho sweating question has finished taking evidence, and the Commissioners are novr nil assembled m 'Wellington considering the draft of tho report for presentation (o tho Government. Their inquirieH havo been of a moat searching nature, and tlioir disclosures have boon of such a kind as lo strike l.ho general public with surprise. In almost every department of labour sweating has been discovered, aud low wages and long hours have been tho rule and not, the exception." If all this be true, the Ooiutnißaiouera mu3t have misunderstood or wilfully uiiaroprcKtinted a great doal oC theovidenoe. Their report says : — "With satisfaction wo report Unit the system known m Loitdou and elsewhere as ' sweating,' and which seemed at oue time likfcly to obtain n footing iv some of our cities, does not exist. It is true there are cotnplainls m many cases of long hours nnd of reduced rateo of pay ; but'theao seem almost inevitable whereever competition is keen, unless checked by a hoalthy public opinion." Tho Commissioners nay that oweating "does uot exisr," n.'id Ihe Aye any a thnt the evidence diucloHod tho faut that sweating had been discovered "iv uluiout ! every department of labour." Wo paid close attention to tin; evidence ns it wan published from diiy to day by the newspapers at tho centrca whero the sittings were held, and can confidently asscTl, thnft the Commissioners reported truly and/faiMj 1 rind that thd Age m therefore! yCji'^ !much m Iho wrong. Wo do. uot. forget that a Duncdiu Commissioner objeoled-to the words "doeß uot exist,"

[because bo thought that one or two ciisea m that part o£ the colony seemed to indicate that sweating was not entirely nnkuown. Bat that gentleman would certainly not endorse the sweeping assertion of the Age, even if it were confined to Dnnedin, Practically the colony ia free from the curse of the sweating system. The evidence no doubt struck the general public with surprise, but not for the reason suggested by our Melbourne contemporary. So much had been written, and spoken m Parliament and elsewhere, about sweating, as something which was m full Bwing and giving riso to all Boris of abominations, that the public expected some veiy startling revelatio'us. But there was an agreeable surprise m store for those who had interested themselves iv the question and m inducing the Government to have tho Commission appointed. The evidence and the report made it amply clear that a very large amount o£ nonsense had been talked, and that, ou the whole, labonr m New Zealand was by no means iv such miserable plight as had been represented. Long hours and reduced rates of pay may be objectionable, and it is to be regretted that the Commissioners had to report the existence of many such cases. But neither the report nor the evidence on which it was based bears out the assertion of tha Age of low wages and long hours being the rule and not the exception. Whole classes of workmen, including unskilled day labourers, work eight boms and no longer. The day begins at 8 o'clock, and punctually at 5 o'clock the tools are dropped, there having bctn an hour's intermission from noon till 1 i o'clock. If ou special occasions the workman labours longer tliau the eight houvs, he claims, nnd receives as a matter of course, pay for overtime, which m some instances is at a higher rate than what is given for work done m the ordinary hours. No one would gather those important facts from the sweeping assertions of the Age. It is clear that the object of the Melbourne writer was to make out a case against New Zealaud as a country where the labour market is m v very bad condition, ; and therefore to lse shunned by Australians. We should ba sorry to see this colony flooded with labourers and artisans from Australia, and we do not pretend to say that things arc as brisk hero for the working claasos ns might ho desired. But of this we are very sure, Dnmely, that the New Zealaud \ working community enjoys a much . gventer degree of prosperity than 13 to hs fouud m any other part of Australasia.