Girls were also engaged in gold laying-on and blocking, but none were employed at this when I was there.
In the litho and letter-press printing rooms a large number of very respectable girls, about eighteen years of age, were employed as layers-on. They were feeding large as well as small machines.
REGULARITY.--The girls are employed all the year round, but they are busier in the autumn and winter (from September to May). They are also very busy the last week in each month. _Occasionally_, in June and July, they only work half-time, but this does not happen often.
HEALTH.--The work is very healthy. Before they had electric power the employer had seen girls fall down and faint when "laying-on" at night when the gas was lit and the room hot. Now that they have electric power and electric light such a thing never happens.
DANGER.--The use of electric power does away with the need of belting shafts, etc. There is simply a small motor on the ground.
ORGANISATION.--There is no organisation amongst the women, though the men are all Unionists.
MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.--Girls all leave when they get married. Occasionally, when they are busy, an old hand who has got married comes back, but 99 per cent. are unmarried. The employer did not know whether they had any married women there then.
FACTORY LEGISLATION.--Factory legislation has in no way limited the usefulness of women. Girls do not mind working overtime when they can make a little extra by it, but the employer said "overtime does not pay anybody." _E.g._, when layers-on worked overtime they were paid time and a quarter, and it did not pay to give that extra money. The restriction of overtime to thirty days a year worked out very inconveniently for the masters, but this employer thought the factory legislation was a very good thing on the whole.
One direct result of factory legislation here has been the introduction of a self-feeding folding machine worked by electric power, which they use when they are busy instead of getting in extra hands or working overtime. When not busy this machine stands idle, and the folding is done by hand. Another result of factory legislation is that they have to employ more hands than they otherwise would, and so girls sometimes have to work short time.