employed in the mills in large numbers and under conditions that should never have been allowed. There were several attempts to introduce Bills to place the conditions in the flax-mills on a better footing, but nothing definite seems to have come of these efforts.
The Act of 1873 provided that girls should not be employed before 9 o’clock in the morning, but in the following year that provision was altered so that the hour was fixed at 8 o’clock; the limit at which they could be employed in the evening was left at 6 o’clock. The eight-hours day was still retained, and factory legislation of later days was foreshadowed by a provision that all employers should forward statements to the Resident Magistrates’ Courts showing the hours during which the women and girls worked. As far as can be gathered from the records, the Act made a marked improvement in the workrooms, “miserable shanties” we are told, “giving place to fine lofty buildings.”
In those days, however, labour legislation was viewed with less favour than it gained later, and it was not long before the cry of the freedom of the individual was raised. There was only one individual in this case. It was a woollen mill, which carried on business in Otago. The mill was in a bad financial position, one-half of its shares being on the market at a discount. It asked that the Act should be modified, otherwise it would have to close its premises. Mr. Donald Reid, in whose district the mill had been established, introduced an amending Bill, which swept away the half-holiday and otherwise modified the Act in a manner that was favourable to the owners of woollen mills. Mr. Reid’s action caused much indignation among the workers, and there began, probably, the first serious agitation in respect to labour legislation. Meetings were held in Dunedin and Christchurch to protest against Mr. Reid’s action. At Christchurch the meeting was attended by “quite 300 persons,” which was evidently looked upon as a large gathering. It was unanimously decided that it would be prejudicial to the best interests of the community to allow the hours of female labour to be increased or to allow night work to be substituted for day work. There were loud protestations by parents and guardians of children.
