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any age may be employed any length of time at any kind of work, however fatiguing or unhealthy".' The only provisions relating to conditions of labour were in the Offensive Trades regulations under the jurisdiction of the Sanitary Board, but they only referred to cleanliness and sanitation in places of work. The only provision affecting employment was the prohibition of children under the age of ten from being employed in rag-picking or cleaning hair or feathers. There was no regulation of hours of labour. Some women and children worked twelve hours a day, Sundays included. Such an eighty-four hour week was in sharp contrast to agitation in Britain for a forty hour working week.
Mr. Bowley felt the time had arrived for Hong Kong to face these problems, though he admitted local opinion and conditions were not ready for the application of all the laws prevailing in Britain in this area. But as a first step he advocated that factories be licensed by the Sanitary Department and there be some regulations regarding hours and conditions of work, with women inspectors appointed to see the regulations were observed. The total prohibition of child labour was closely connected with the provision of schools if compulsory education was to be instituted. In England education had been compulsory for fifty years and free for eighteen years.
Before 1914 the Education Department in Hong Kong had no control over any school except Government schools and Grant schools. In that year registration of schools was made compulsory and certain elementary regulations were laid down regarding sanitation and the enforcement of discipline.
A discussion of Mr. Bowley's proposals followed. On the subject of carrying loads to the Peak, a member stated that this was "a disgusting sight." Mr. Schoffield saw it differently. He maintained that "carrying loads up the Peak is about the healthiest exercise to which a child could be put in Hong Kong".
A member asked him, “If you were a little child would you like to carry heavy loads instead of going to school and enjoying yourselves as other children do? Would you like to see your mother carrying loads up the Peak?"