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as possible. There are one or two other Continental Acts I wish to inform the Committee about. In Austria the Minister of Commerce says, in a circular referring to the weekly day of rest for hotel and reatnurant workers, " The Legislature, recognizing the necessity for and the great value of Sunday rest from the social, hygienic, and moral point of view, laid down the principle of the prohibition of industrial work on Sundays as early as the Act of Bth March, 1885 (8.G.81, No. 22), and expressly confirmed ii in the A.'t of 15th January, 1895 (R.G.81, No. 21). The Legislature was certainly aware.that this prohibition could not be applied without exception, because in consequence of the technical characteristics of the trade, or for economic reasons, Sunday work is unavoidable in certain classes of work. The hotel and publichouse trade is included among those exempted from the obligation of observing the Sunday rest, because Sunday work appears to be necessary in this case in order to satisfy the needs of the public. Notwithstanding, the sanction for Sunday work in hotels and publichouses is subject to the express condition that workmen employed for more than three hours on Sunday shall, be allowed a compensatory period of twenty-four hours' rest on the following Sunday or a week-day, or two periods of rest of six hours each on two week-days. In response to an inquiry, the Minister of Commerce, in agreement with the Minister of the Interior, issued the decree of 18th June, 1896 (Z. 10944), interpreting this provision in the sense that for every Sunday on which workmen are employed fur more than three hours they shall be allowed as a compensatory period of rest an entire Sunday or week-day, or two periods of six hours each on two days of the week." In Bosnia and Herzegovina an Act was passed in 1907 giving the weekly day of rest. 1 have it with me. It also gives the day of rest on some other day of the week to workers employed on Sunday. In Portugal workers in hotels and restaurants are granted a full day of the week. The Act is as follows : " It shall be the duty of owners, directors, managing directors, and managers of separate or combined industrial or commercial enterprises to allow all their employees an uninterrupted period of rest of at least twenty-four hours every week. For the purposes of this decree ' employee ' shall mean assistants, apprentices, workmen, servants, and all other persons who are employed in industry or commerce under the orders of other persons. All factories, workplaces, and commercial and industrial businesses shall be closed on the day fixed for the weekly rest, and the work or business carried on therein shall be suspended both for internal and external purposes. The following undertakings shall be exempt from the obligations imposed by the foregoing section : Newspaper businesses, chemists, hospitals, undertakers' businesses, bathing-establishments, bakeries, restaurants, inns, eatinghouses, ice-factories, slaughterhouses; businesses for the sale of fresh fruit, garden-produce, vegetables, and fish; dairies; establishments for the supply of water, light, and motor power; undertakings for the work of loading and unloading; telephone-offices, mines, and all industrial enterprises where the suspension of work would involve damage to the raw materials used therein, or to the manufactured goods, or which are of such nature that work must be carried out without interruption. It shall be the duty of the owners, directors, managing directors, and managers of the undertakings to which this section applies to allow their employees a day of rest during the week in rotation, unless they prefer to close their establishments and suspend work in accordance with the provisions of section 2." Other countries, such as Greece, Roumania, Switzerland, Spain, and Prussia have passed similar legislation. South America is a country full of precedents for the legislation we now seek. In the Argentine Republic a Sunday Rest Act was passed in November, 1905. It fixes a Sunday rest-day for most trades, and provides that in lieu of Sunday a full tweuty-four-hours consecutive rest shall be given on one other day of the week for workers in hotels and restaurants and the other businesses which must of necessity carry on over the seven days of the week. The Republic of Chili followed with similar legislation in 1907. The Act is also framed on Continental lines. It fixes Sunday generally, but allows the substitution of one other day as the holiday in hotels and restaurants. Uruguay passed similar legislation in 191 I. Now, I want to give further instances of legislative applications of the principle. About two years ago a Weekly Day of Rest Bill was introduced in tlie House of Lords as a private Bill. It was sympathetically received by all parties. The Government undertook to make inquiries as to the extent of such class of legislation on the Continent, and on that undertaking the Bill was withdrawn. The Government made the inquiries, and the full report signed by each foreign Consul is embodied in a white-paper. I secured a copy of (he report. I gave it to Mr. Millar in 1911, and have not been able to secure another copy. It will probably be in the Parliamentary Library. That report is in itself sufficient backing for the clause in this Bill. It shows that in at least fourteen Continental countries there are legislative enactments dealing with the principle of a weekly day of rest, and that the general tendency of them all is to make for Sunday as the rest-day, or in its stead some other day of the week. There has been no news of the Government taking action on tlie matter yet, but the cables a few weeks ago announced the introduction in the House of Lords again of the Weekly Day of Rest. There is no legislation of the kind in force in Australia, but I have the following facts to place before the Committee : The Victorian Government promised a deputation of Church people and hotel workers that it would introduce a Six-day Week Bill for hotel workers this session. The Bill is now before the Victorian Parliament. The West Australian Government is pledged to introduce a similar Bill this coming session. Mr. Fisher, for the ex-Labour Government, promised a general weekly day of rest legislation when the Federal Parliament gets authority to deal with such matters. But while the Legislatures in Australia have not acted, the principle has been given effect to by some of the Australian Wages Boards determinations. Mr. Stewart has already given evidence that the working-week of hotel workers in Sydney was confined to five days and a half. That is half a day less than is proposed in the clause. I worked as waiter in the Hotel Australia in 1902. The Act at that time provided only a weekly half-holiday, but the dining-room staff were each given one clear day's holiday on the management's own arrangement, In 1909 a Wages Board

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