H.—s

18

394. I used to give them 9d. a gross, but now it is 7Ad. on the 251b. bags. I provide machines and cotton, and pay for breakages. 395. I was able to make previously £1 14s. or £1 15s. a week. Out of that I had to pay an expressman ss. a week, and 7s. 6d. to an extra hand for turning; and I had the rest to myself. 396. The machines have never broken down, and the needles last a long time. Cotton cost me 9s. or 9s. 6d. a week, but that had not to be taken out of the amount 1 mentioned; only the 7s. 6d. and the ss. come out of that amount. 397. I now make 18s. or £1 a week clear money, and previously I made, as I have said, £1 2s. 6d. 398. I have seen the Inspector in my house ; he has been there two or three times, but not until lately. He madenp complaints. The Inspector has not inspected my present premises, which I am about to leave, as the room is not suitable. 399. The little girl of fifteen makes 10s. (id. a week now; she used to make 12s.—that is, for five days and a half. The other girls would get about the same ; perhaps a few pence difference. 400. The price has been reduced on account of another firm taking prices down. When the price was reduced my employer told me that other firms were putting their prices down. 401. The bag-making is not always dusty ; sometimes it is clean work. 402. The express I pay for carries the goods both ways. I have to cut the bags out, and do everything. The material conies to me in bales. 403. One pound a week is not sufficient to keep me. My husband brings me something. lam not wholly dependent upon it. 404. There are a lot more bag-makers doing them for less than 1 am doing them for. 105. I complained to the warehouseman, and the answer was, he could not help it : 1 must compete with the others. Miss K. examined. 406. I am a shirt-machinist, and have worked at 's for three years. 407. I am at piecework, and earn from 17s. to 18s. 6d. 408. I live at home. 409. I have suffered in health from working the machine. It gives me headache aud general debility. Miss L. examined. 410. I am a shirt-machinist. 411. I work at Mr. 's. 412. I have worked for Mrs. a short time before that. Was working at wages—£l 4s. a week. 413. I have been five years with Mrs. , and was on weekly wages for some time, earning lbs. a week ; that was before the log. 414. I have no complaints to make, aud am content with my wages. 415. I am living at home with my parents. 416. The room I work in is very well ventilated. 117. I have not suffered at any time in consequence of the machine. Henry Eodda examined. 418. I am a bootmaker, and Secretary of the Bootmakers' Union, Dunedin. 419. I know more especially the benching, finishing, and clicking departments, which the Union has control over. 420. So far as apprentices and girls are concerned, we have no control other than controlling in the departments mentioned the proportion of boys to men. 421. I am working at Messrs. Sargood's. There would be about 140 men working in that factory ; about 45 women and boys make up the balance to 200. That is one boy to three men. 422. The finishing and benching is piecework ; but clicking —that is, cutting out the uppers —is done on weekly wages. 423. Those on weekly wages vary from £1 15s. to £2 15s.—that is according to the quality of leather they are cutting and their quickness as workmen. 424. The girls are machinists and fitters. They have solely to do with getting up the uppers. They make from 15s. to £1 ss. a week. Some might get about 125., but they advance after that. For those who are fair trade-girls that is the wage. 425. For boys' work there is one department of benching—that is, putting the uppers on to the soles; and the other department for boys is finishing the edges and bottoms of boots—generally a light sort of work. 426. The boys start at ss. per week, and in the last—that is, the fifth—year they finish off at from 15s. to £1 per week. Of course, that department lam not thoroughly conversant with. 427. After their five years, as a rule, the boys are continued in the factory as journeymen. It is not the exception for boys who have served their time in the factory to become journeymen and to continue to work there. 428. The factory I am working in I can speak favourably of. It is a new shop, and well ventilated. I have not seen a healthier workshop on this side of the line ; but some shops in this town are not fit to work in. 429. We scarcely ever hear of or see the Inspector in the factory. 430. lam acquainted with the Factory Act, but have not thoroughly studied it. I believe the Act is right enough if it was carried out. 431. I saw that the Inspector stated that he had no authority to go into a factory : if that is so the Act needs amendment, giving him power to go in. 432. At least in Sargood's I think things are conducted in a proper manner and according to the Act. There are proper and adequate sanitary arrangements.