was done by contract, and the contractors employed underpaid, and, as far as possible, unpaid labour. They monopolised the work of many factories, and the warehousemen considered that they were bound to keep the contractors going.
At an enthusiastic public meeting in Dunedin, a committee appointed previously to inquire into the subject reported that it had asked the warehousemen to agree to a minimum scale, under which the workers could earn fair wages. It also suggested that in giving out work to contractors, the warehousemen and the merchants should obtain a guarantee that the contractors would pay the workers not less than the tariff rates, and, when that rule was violated, work should be withdrawn from the contractors until reparation was made.
The meeting asked the Government to appoint a committee to inquire into the best method of dealing with the whole subject. It also urged that all citizens should use their efforts to form a Trades Union of tailoresses, shirt manufacturers, finishers, and pressers, the Union to embrace all those trades throughout the whole of the colony. A strong committee, with Sir Robert Stout at its head, was appointed to see that the decision of the meeting was given effect to, and there was established a movement that had a marked influence on the future of New Zealand.
It was taken up by nearly all associations that came into touch with the masses of the people. The New Zealand Protection League, for instance, when it held its annual session in Christchurch in June, 1889, discussed the subject at length, and passed a motion stating that the development of the sweating system, especially with regard to several branches of female industry, called loudly for parliamentary interference.
The league’s idea of remedying or removing the evil was to establish a Labour Bureau on a large scale and under a responsible head, so that it might record all wage-scales mutually agreed upon by employers and workers, adjust disputes by arbitration, and obtain statistical information in regard to the labour market, and also have an agency that would be capable of drafting the unemployed to districts where they could be given work.
