The Star. SATURDAY, JAN. 14, 1893. Eight Hours.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4543, 14 January 1893, Page 2

The Star. SATURDAY, JAN. 14, 1893. Eight Hours.

(Lytielton Times.) The movement in favour of eight hours being fixed as the legal day's work is making progress all over, the civilised world" A cable message in pur issue of yesterday conveyed the intelligence that the English Miners' Conference, now sitting at Birmingham, had voted for the legalisation of the eight hours day. True, the vote was not unanimous, as the Durham miners opposed it, but the resolution arrived at is significant when it is remembered that it represents the demand of 270,000 members of the Miners' Federation. Many English politicians are pledged to support an eight hours law in the case of dangerous or unhealthy occupations, and there seems little reason to doubt that such a law will soon be passed and applied to mining pursuits, at least. The workers of New Zealand, to whom the eight hours day is an established fact — a growth synchronous with tie industrial development of the Colony — can have but little conception of the difiiculty experienced in altering the habits of generations with regard to hours of labour. They may obtain some faint idea of the tremendous task which the English miners have set themselves, if they try to imagine the struggle that would take place if the employers in New Zealand determined upon extending the hours of labour to ten daily. Even in the United States of America, which, as compared with England, are only of yesterday, Labour makeß but tardy progress in correcting bad economic habits. A report by the British Consul at Chicago, giving a summary of Labour legislation in the different States of the Union, mentions that the eight hours law now prevails in Illinois and Wisconsin, while in Minnesota the legal day's work is fixed at ten hours. It does not appear, however, that these enactments have produced any marked change in the condition of the workmen. The reason is obvious. In Illinois, the eight hours law is hampered by the proviso that it does not apply " where otherwise agreed," and in Wisconsin the eight hours day does not apply to "any contract by the -week, month, or year. In this way, workmen are at liberty to contract themselves out of the provisions of the law. Even with regard to the ten hours law in Minnesota, it is, provided that it only applies to occupations "where no control exists," so that its operation must be very limited. We may bd certain that

enactments of this kind will not meet tbe requirements of the English miners. The eight hours law they want, is a compulsory one, of universal operation, and with no possibility o£ evasion by contract, sub-contract, or agreement of any kind. Their demand for such a law will, of course, be resisted by the coal owners with all the wealth and influence at their command, since victory for the miners on this point would give them a tremendous advantage over employers in future wages disputes. But, with bne-man-one-vote looming ahead, the legalisation of the eight hours day for miners in England cannot be long delayed. We do not for a moment suppose that the world- wide adoption of the eight hours system will bring about the industrial millennium, but it will undoubtedly do much to ameliorate the condition of masses of workmen, and will bring about that feeling of contentment which springs from a sense of equal treatment.