The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-25 00:00:00

FACTORY ACTS.

This subject was introduced by Mr. GIBBS, who moved,
on behalf of the Wolverhampton Chamber :—" That the
Factory Acts and Hours of Labour Acts ought to be assi-
milated, and placed under the same authorities ; that the
payment of surgeons under the Factory Acts ought to be
made in the same way and from the same sources as the
factory inspectors ; and that the Home Secretary be memo-
rialised to move for a committee of the House of Commons
to consider the working of the two Acts, and to obtain
returns of the payments made by manufacturers to medical
men under their authority. This was seconded by Mr.
Richards, of Exeter, but after several amendments were
proposed the resolution was withdrawn.

An amendment was immediately proposed by the
President of the Birmingham Chamber, who said the
Workshops Act in the district he represented was practi-
cally a dead letter. Other gentlemen of large commercial
experience expressed a like opinion, and some arguments
were adduced against the interference with adult female
labour which this factory and workshop legislation
involved. The hon. member for Halifax (Colonel Akroyd,
M.P.) agreed with the proposal to assimilate the two
Acts, but thought legislation on the subject had been too
recent to afford any grounds for hoping that the House of
Commons would do anything further at present. The
member for the North-West Riding (Lord F. Cavendish),
who avowed himself a staunch supporter of the principle
of the Factory Act, pointed out that if the resolution
were carried, the number of inspectors that would have
to be appointed would make the whole system extremely
unpopular. Other speakers urged that the Workshops
Regulation Act had not been sufficiently long in operation
to warrant the conference in giving a decisive opinion
upon its merits. A letter from Mr. Redgrave, the Factory
Inspector, was read, shewing that the writer held a similar
opinion. Several large employers of labour doubted whether
the educational effects expected of the half-time system
had been produced, and a letter was read from a Birming-
ham working man, contending that the Workshops Act
was nothing better than a farce, Mr. Mundella, M.P., adding
that though it was impossible to assimilate the Factory and
Workshops Act, it might be beneficial to bring about an
assimilation between the Factory and Factory Extensions
Act. The Hours of Labour Bills he would leave to die a
natural death, which he thought they would soon do. He
denounced, as oppressive, the provision which compelled
employers to pay for medical inspection in their factories.
He knew some medical men, not particularly distinguished
in other respects, who made incomes of from £l,OOO to
£3,000 a year from this source. The discussion was pro-
longed for an hour or two, and at the close the Wolverhamp-
ton resolution was withdrawn, and an amendment was
passed recommending the equal application of the Factory
Extensions Act to all districts. The voting, however, was
so close that, by a rule of the association, the resolution
will be inoperative.

The rest of the time of the meeting was occupied in the
discussion of a resolution, requiring that all commercial
vessels should be considered neutral iu time of war. The
resolution was lost,

IMITATE THE MOON. --If you are a wise man you
will treat the world as the moon treats it. Shew .t only
one side of yourself, seldom shew yourself too much at a
time, and let what you shew be calm, cool, and polished.
But look at every side of the world.--Shirley Brooks.

A free pardon has, it is understood, been granted
to Frederick Augustus Farrar, who, with John Hallett,
was, at the November Sessions of the Central Criminal
Court, sentenced to ten years' penal servitude for forging
a bill of exchange, which purported to be accepted by Earl
Dudley.

THE PROPOSED REDUCTION OF WAGES IN THE
COTTONTRADE.—AIthough the depression in the cotton trade
is so very great, the recent proposition from the committee
of the Blackburn Masters' Association, has been aban-
doned. Out of 150 manufacturers, within Blackburn, who
have been waited upon by deputations of their hands, not
more than 12 have expressed themselves in favour of a
reduction. The Blackburn Standard list is considered harsh
and unequal in a few instances, but any serious departure
therefrom would create au impassablegulf between masters
and operatives.

THE LABOUR MARKET AND MATRIMONY IN
VICTORIA.—The Times correspondent has some interesting
remarks on work and marriage in Victoria. He says:
" The wages both of skilled and unskilled labourers are
now some 30 or 40 per cent. higher than they have been
for years past, and the cost of living is cheaper than in
England. Carpenters are making their 12e. a day ; plas-
terers, masons, and others in the building trade nearly as
much. Common labourers are paid proportionately high.
Farming men have been commonly receiving during the
late harvesting as much as Cs. a day and rations; and
they may count on steady work at good wages all the year
round, owing to the large quantities of fresh soil being
now constantly broken up for cultivation. As to domestic
servants, their wages will ever be high in a country where
every servant girl naturally considers that service is only
a keeping a sort of terms preparatory to being called to
the altar by some appreciative swain who ,hopes soon to
give her servants of her own. Strange -to say, some of
the most attractive of these girls—of good and steady
character, too—are snapped up by well-to-do Chinamen.
This at first sight appears more surprising when, accord-
ing to M. Hut's account of the Chinese in their own
country, women there are little better than slaves, and
are deemed by the men to have no souls. Here, on the
contrary, it is the Chinese bridegroom who (if he have a
soul at all) certainly has not a soul he can call his own in
the presence of his bright-eyed and voluble Tippe-
rary wife. She breaks trim
_in thoroughly, and ,makes
him turn AEocicji4th9lic bFfom_ ehe will loslc. on .hiw
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