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kare rai c rave ta kotou akanoanga, te ia kotou rai te au ture c te au akanoanga : E reva tamaru uaorai taku c tuku kia kotou, no teia tuatau teia tuatua i roto te enua ra ko c Teianei; te tuku nei au ia Frederick Joseph Moss, c British Resident no kotou, kua tika katoa i te Ariki Vaine ko Victoria e'hua akakite rai au kite British Resident, te au me katoa ma te tiaki meitaki, i roto ta kotou enua, auaraka c kino : Tera tetai, ko te au ture ou ta kotou c akatupu ; kia tika roa i te British Resident c reira akatika te Au Beretane te reira au ture. Kua akakite rai au ki aia, c tautureia kotou, ma te apii kia kotou te tika c te tika kore. Kua tataia teia tuatua kite are ote Kavana, Akarana, Nu Tireni, te ra o , 1891. Onslow.
No. 18. (No. 25.) My Lord, — Government House, Auckland, 17th April, 1891. I have the honour to forward herewith copy of a memorandum from the Registrar-General (with its enclosure) supplying the information required by your Lordship's circular despatch of the 20th December, 1890, as to the hours of adult labour in this colony. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, &c. ONSLOW.
Enclosure. 13th March, 1891. Be the information asked for in the despatch from the Secretary of State bearing date the 20th December, 1890: The laws in this colony affecting the hours of adult labour are " The Employment of Females and Others Act, 1881," and " The Coal-mines Act, 1886." The former prohibits the employment of females in factories, workshops, work-rooms, or places of business between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., or for more than eight hours in any one day; also the employment in any such place of any female for more than four hours and a half without au interval of at least half an hour for a meal. The Act also requires that every female shall have holiday on Saturday afternoon from 2 o'clock, on Sunday, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and every other day set apart as a public holiday without loss of wages. The Coal-mines Act (section 23) provides that no person in charge of steam machinery used in connection with any mine, or for the treatment of the products of any mine, shall be employed for more than eight consecutive hours at any time, such period of eight hours to be exclusive of any time occupied in raising steam and in drawing fires and in exhausting steam in connection with the machinery in charge of such person, and exclusive of meal-hours and of any time in which such person is employed in case of breakage or other emergency. There is no legislation otherwise generally regulating the hours of adult labour, but by common consent and practice eight hours has for many years past been the recognised duration of a day's labour for day wage-earners. Many of the rules of trades unions fix the period of labour at eight hours per day, or an equivalent of forty-eight hours per week, but an operative association of bakers has fixed ten hours as the duration of a day's labour. I forward herewith some tables (" Statistics of New Zealand, 1889," pp. 229 to 232 inclusive) giving the ruling rates of wages for various kinds of labour at the end of 1889. Complete later information has not yet been obtained, but it is believed that, as a result of the spread of unionism during the past year, some kinds of artisan labour is somewhat higher than the rates given in the table. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary. Wm. R. E. Bbown, Registrar-General.
No. 19. (No. 26.) My Lord, — Government House, Auckland, 17th April, 1891. I have the honour to forward for your Lordship's information copy of a resolution passed at a recent meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, &c. ONSLOW.
Enclosure. May it please youb Excellency,— Napier, 10th April, 1891. That, by direction of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, I have the honour to forward to your Excellency the following resolution passed at the recent meeting of the Assembly in Christchurch. Your Excellency's most obedient servant, His Excellency the Earl of Onslow, David Sidey. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of New Zealand. " That this Assembly expresses its appreciation of the efforts made by F. J. Moss Esq., British Resident at Rarotonga, to lessen the evils of unlicensed drink-selling ou the islands, and