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SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
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pockets, but that you wish to do away, as much as possible, with needless Sanday labour (Lond applause). That, I think, you have a right to do. It is my firm opinion that you have a right to do this, because you'll only be asking for that which men somewhat similarly situated as yourselves already have conceded to them. I refer to Europeans in this port who are engaged in directing Chinese workmen, and in this connection I specially refer to foremen in the employ of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. These men, such as engineers, ship-wrights, moulders and boiler-makers, are indeed well educated. They are "picked' men from home, experts at their profession, who came out here on fixed liberal salaries, and are granted double pay for Sunday and all overtime work. I think therefore that you will be perfectly right in asking for, and expecting, extra pay for unnecessary labour on Sunday-the working of cargo in port on Sunday. (Hear, hear). I know a good many of these Dock employees, and have asked them for their opinion on this very question, and they all assured me that they would rather forego the extra pay than work on Sunday. The Sunday is as dear to us as it is to them. I will now ask you a question, as representative body of officers, and I want you to answer me truly and conscientiously. Which would you rather receive, extra
pay
for Sunday labour or be sure of your Sunday to yourselves?" (Shouts of "free Sunday," "no Sunday labour," and applause). Continuing, the Speaker said-I am informed that the members of the Public Works Department of this Colony receive extra pay for Sunday and all overtime work. I am confident that in asking for this extra pay from your owners, you will, in respect to unnecessary Sunday labour, carry with you the full sympathy not only of men similarly situated as yourselves, but also of the general public as well.` I don't say that you should ask for this at once, for it will be better that you should discuss it amongst yourselves at ordinary meetings, so that every member may have an opportunity of expressing his candid opinion upon the subject. Should owners concede this extra pay, it will be a small step gained towards what we still hope to attain--the compulsory cessation of labour in this harbour on Sunday (Loud cheers). That, Gentlemen, is all you can do at present to forward this Sunday labour question. I don't think you'll get much money by the request for extra pay, but you'll be pretty sure to get more Sundays to yourselves (Laughter and applanse), for it will be the object of owners and agents to avoid this extra pay if possible. By doing as I suggest, you will receive the tacit gratitude of all shipping clerks and all people on shore, who have necessarily to attend to the business of unnecessary Sunday labour on board ship (Applause). On this question would than the Rev. Mr. Goldsmith-although it may be presumptuous on my part--and go further say that I entirely disagree with their Excellencies who have laid it down that compulsory legislation in this connection, is inadvisable. It would, I am sure, be beneficial.
The Benefits of Stopping it.
I honestly believe that if Sunday labour was compulsorily stopped, both ashore and afloat, it would result in lasting benefit to the inhabitants of this Colony. I believe that if the Government of the Colony passed such an Act, the Act to come in force say one year after its passage through the Legislative Council, the Chinese themselves would have time to weigh this question, and might be by that time assured of the benefits of such legislation. My experience of Hongkong has not been brief, it has been that of a great number of years, and I can truly say that I have never known any innovation in the law to be passed which was of lasting benefit to the Chinese in particular that was not virtually forced upon the community. Doubtless as soon as the first inkling of such a law was caught by the masses, we should hear an outcry and wail from the entire Chinese community, who would urge that the foreigners were trying to force upon them laws which were entirely opposed to their religious instincts, and would go on to predict that by the of such laws the Colony would be utterly ruined.
passage We should hear that every shop-keeper, labourer, contractor and boatman would be robbed of 52 days' pay every year! Gentlemen, I've heard such wails, such lamentations, before-these baseless forecasts of utter ruin. In fact, whenever any great innovation of the law is forced upon the Chinese, they invariably object to it. I remember about the year 1865 a great fire occurred in the west part of this Colony. All the Chinese quarter, in fact the whole town from the great cross roads for at least quarters of mile, the houses were razed to the ground. It was, in fact, one of the largest
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR,
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and most disastrous fires ever known in Hongkong, In the fire of '78, too, the Chinese were heavy sufferers, because they were not insured. They did not understand the system of insurance then, as they do now. But the losses by fire did not worry our Celestial friends nearly so much as the fact of a law being passed which enacted that the Chinese tenements should be constructed in modern style with fire-proof walls, etc., etc. The Chinese offered strenuous objections to this, and all sorts of ridiculous rumours of calamity floated about. However, the houses were built as now seen, and no great ruin, in fact no loss at all befel this Colony. The upshot was, that the Chinese themselves admitted that the new law was really very beneficial in its operation. I have known of several outcries and prognostications of utter ruin raised in this Colony respecting certain Ordinances before the Council. Such laws, in the face of violent opposition, have invariably been passed, and none of this utter ruin has come about; on the contrary, increased prosperity has been the net result. I remember a particularly loud wail when not only the Chinese but also nine-tenths of the Europeans joined in the outcry. They said that the Colony would be ruined, property depreciate in value, whole families be brought down to the lowest condition of poverty, the junk trade leave us, and, in fact, that chaos would reign supreme here. This, Gentlemen, was at the time Sir Richard MacDonnell insisted on the passage of the Stamp Act. At the time he came here as Governor, the finances of this Colony were in a most deplorable condition-bankruptcy stared the Government in the face. Sir Richard decided that to raise revenue, a Stamp Act must be passed. "What," said the people, "have a Stamp Act? Why, to do so would be to bring utter ruin upon the town! Not only did the Chinese set up this howl, but fully nine-tenths of the Europeans joined in the chorus. Nevertheless, Sir Richard, a man of strong will, got his Ordinance through, and six mouths later the Chinese and Europeans were lond in their praises of the operation of the new law. So, you see, compulsory legislation has hitherto benefited this Colony, and I am convinced that were the Government to pass a law respecting the cessation of Sunday labour, it would eventually be a blessing to every man, woman and child in Hongkong.
The Chinese will appreciate it.
No doubt we shall, in such case, hear the usual wails; but if the law is passed and in operation for a year, I believe every Chinese workman would by that time heartily appreciate his Sunday, just as much as his white fellow in Europe. (Applause). No amount of talking or persuasion will induce him to believe it though-it must be forced upon him. Having had to obey such a law for a year, it would dawn upon the Chinese that they were not robbed of 52 days' pay, but that they were actually getting seven days' pay for six days' labour. At the year's end, if you asked a coolie or a stoué-cutter or a boatman to work on Sunday, he would promptly tell you that such labour being unusual, he could only undertake it provided you gave hima double pay! I am aware that you cannot make a man moral or virtuous by Act of Parliament, but you can make him cleaner and healthier by the operation of laws; and being cleaner and healthier, he will be stronger and better able to work. One day of rest out of seven will make him a better man in many ways; and that should be undoubted by all reasonable men (Applause), I trust, gentlemen, that we shall all live to see the day when in no part of Her Majesty's dominions it will not be compulsory for every man to take one day's rest out of seven, except in such cases where labour is absolutely necessary in the interest of the general weal of the community at large (applause); and that, too, by direct command of Her Majesty the Queen (loud applause).
With a cordial vote of thanks to the Chairman for his very interesting address, proposed by Mr. Maddox and seconded by Mr. St. John, the proceedings terminated, after the announcement that on Tuesday, the 9th instant, there would be a general discussion upon the Sunday labour question.
THE Sunday Labour question in Hongkong has assumed a new phase by its adoption as an important portion of the platform of the Hongkong Mercantile Marine Officers' Association, and it is hardly too much to say that the practical abolition of this anything but creditable relic of old time slavery in a British Colony has at last been placed within measurable distance. For the work that takes place in Hongkong harbour every Sunday--requiring shipping offices being
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