SWEATED INDUSTRIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13294, 24 May 1907, Page 6

SWEATED INDUSTRIES.

EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND. So much interest was taken, in the collection of examples of work done under .-we.iting conditions, that was shown at the Christchurch Exhibition, that the Labour Department determined to send it round the. colony, and after being shown in several other towns it has now reached Timuni. The ai tides have been arranged in one of Mr A. Davidson's sample rooms, on George street (facing Barnard street, and as there is plenty of room for it. the things can be much better seen fluiii they were, crowded into a snuill spave. in the Exhibition. It is really an iiiteie.-ting little show. The articles are of very many kinds, most of them commonplace enough. What gives ilit-m in-t-ie-t is the labi-1 attached to each stating Hit- price paid for making it, singly, ruby the do/.rii, gross, or thousand as the case may be. Nearly all the articles appear to b? women's or children's work, the majority being articles of clothing, with some toys and decorative stuff, cardboard boxes, children's shoes and women's shoe uppers. A few wooden toys may have be-n made by men, but- when collections of nails and pieces of chain exhibited were made by women, the light woodwork may be" doubtful. The most valuable looking article in the collection

is a costume, apparently well and carefnlly made, and this is labelled "Is Id." The tickets in most cases add the weekly earnings of the workers, at so many hours per -lav. The comments of visitors indicate I bar t'hev concur in thinking • that it is ;> shame" that anv people should be permitted to get work done for them at suc-h rates of pav ;and that some concur in the opinion thai the British Commissioners to the Exhibition did the Motherland a disservice in exposing such a proof of the imperfect control of labour conditions The "Mayor formally opened the •exhibition at 5 "o'clock, when there were _ some fortv or fifty people present. Mr Craigae said' he usuailv expressed pleasure at opening a bazaar or sale of work, but he had no such pleasure in this case. It was an exhibition to arouse indignation, to make one's blood boil, a. disgrace to civilisation. It was difficult, he admitted, to put down sweating, and the Government of Aew Zealand deserved credit for their effective legislation in that direction. It was better, more humane, to have harassing labour laws than to have sweated industries A description of one sweating den he rjuoted from the "Daily Chronicle," descriptive of half-a-dozen girls sewing in one room at rates that would give them onlv Id to 2d an hour, and probably they had" to sleep, in the same room, ventilated only by opening the door. He hoped that this exhibit would help New Zealanders to determine that the sweating evil should never become established in this colony. The exhibit is in charge of Mr E. M. Casey, from the head office of the Labour Department, Wellington. It was seen last, evening by more than SCO people. It will remain "here a few days, and be open to view from 9 to 1, 2 to 5, and 7 to 9 each day.