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which work 10^ hours, and several of the larger engineering concerns, which 
work only 9^ hours. The usual limits of employment are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 
only rarely does work continue until 6.30. Between these hours there is a mid 
day pause of an hour and a half or an hour and a quarter, according to the 
distance of the factory from the workers’ homes, with a breakfast pause of half 
an hour, which is spent in or about the works, and a “ vesper ” (afternoon) 
pause at 4 o’clock of less duration. Night work is only usual where continuous 
operations are essential, but there has for a long time been a good deal of over 
time. In the engineering trade the term of notice is a week or a fortnight, 
though predominantly the latter ; in the less skilled industries it is a week. In 
some undertakings, however, no notice is required on either side, and but for 
the unpopularity of this arrangement with the working classes generally, many 
more employers would be glad to adopt it. It is the universal rule, however, 
that an engagement may be terminated either at the end of the day or at a 
moment’s notice during the first week of employment. Wages are usually paid 
fortnightly, several days’ pay being kept in hand, but interim advances up to a 
given proportion of average earnings may be claimed. The holidays observed 
are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit 
Monday, Corpus Christi, and two days at Christmas. Some of the brewers 
and a large number of the book printers have for some time given their 
employees several days’ leave during the year in addition, without deduction 
of wages. It is also not unusual for employers to make an allowance of 
6cf., la., or even 2s. a work-day to the men who are absent on military duty. 
The works regulations which, according to legal requirement, are placed ' in 
the hands of all workpeople by their employers, do not materially differ 
from those usual elsewhere, though some of them contain stringent provisions 
on the subject of negligence. Thus, in several large works fines varying 
from 2\d. to half a day’s wages, with instant dismissal in aggravated 
cases, are threatened in the event of (1) late coming or too early leaving ; 
(2) loitering in a room where the offender is not working ; (3) “ sleeping or . 
being found in sleeping position or in general being unoccupied ” (both day and 
night shifts are here worked) ; (4) entering or leaving the factory yard other 
wise than past the porter’s lodge ; and (5) neglecting to warn strangers off the 
premises. 
In the building trades 9, 9J, and 10 hours a day are worked in summer, 
though 10 predominantly. As a rule no notice is required before the determi 
nation of an engagement, though masons can only be dismissed or leave at the 
end of the day, and in the case of carpenters notice must be given on Thursday 
for the following Saturday. Wages are paid at the end of each week. In the 
carpenters’ wages agreement there is the stipulation that " May-day,” the 
recognised festival of the Social Democratic party throughout Germany, shall be 
observed as a holiday. 
The usual weekly rates of wages for skilled men in the engineering trade 
range from 305. to 305., though in isolated cases both higher and lower rates 
are paid ; labourers as a rule earn from 215. to 235. In the State Railway 
works skilled men earn from 195. 5c?. to 245. 11c?. and labourers from 155. 6d. 
to 175. 9d. It should be stated, however, that two large engineering works pay 
exceptionally high rates, which are nox representative of the trade generally. 
In the paper and wood pulp industry the wages in the higher branches of 
work range from 245. to 27s., but the rate for general labourers is from 185. 
to 215. A large number of men are employed in the lumber yards and the saw 
mills adjacent to the docks ; unloaders earn from 215. 7d. to 245., and inside 
men—joiners at the machine and sawyers—from 245. to 305., while ordinary 
labourers earn from 195. 10c?. to 205. 5c?. 
The general rate for unskilled workmen in the chemical industry is 18a. 
to 215. a week, and this rate covers the great majority, but furnace and apparatus 
men earn from 245. to 35s. ; between these two ranges there is much differentia 
tion according to the quality, danger, and difficulty of the work done. Wages 
in the rubber and celluloid industry, which is carried on in several neighbouring 
suburbs, are from I85. to 215. for ordinary labourers and 24a. for better men. 
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