It is believed that the prohibition of Government work on Sundays would lead to an increase in the cost of Government work, and that contractors would be prohibited from working on Sundays.
The cost of production would increase considerably, to a degree far in excess of the actual net increase of cost due to the change of custom. This would undoubtedly be made a pretext by the Chinese contractors for a general rise in prices, and although it could be argued that public competition would ultimately reduce prices to their true level, it is extremely probable that a rise having once taken effect, it would be maintained for a long period.
Although I am of the opinion that the cost of public works would be very considerably increased if operations on Government works only were prohibited on Sundays, the general cost would only be increased or reduced in ratio if a reasonable limitation of Sunday labour were established on all large works carried on in the Colony (e.g., large building operations, manufactories, and labour connected with shipping).
If no work were performed on Sundays, the working days would be reduced by one seventh, or about 14 per cent. But as in buildings and manufactures, labour is but one factor in the cost of production, and in many cases amounts to considerably less than the cost of the raw material, the cost of production in the case of buildings should not be raised more than from 5 to 7 per cent.
It is a well-established fact that...