UNREGULATED FACTORIES,

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on one day of the week, to be specified beforehand by the provincial Government.
 This day should ordinarily be the same for all factories in the
same district, but the provincial Government might grant permission to
letter factories to substitute another day where adequate cause was
shown.

Protection of Health.
The second urgent need is the enforcement of what may be terms.
ed the minimum standards necessary to ensure the health of the workers.
This would include such matters as the necessary structural alterations or
repairs to the building, the supply of adequate latrine accommodation,
ventilation, lighting and drainage. The Act, in addition to requiring the
observance of suitable standards in respect of these matters, might
give power to the provincial Governments to apply welfare orders of a
simple nature to particular classes or groups of industrial establishments.
This would ordinarily be done only when the Government was satisfied
from the report of the inspecting authority of the prevalence of certain
conditions, which, although detrimental to the health of the workers,
could not be remedied under the parent Act. There is no need to enlarge
further on this matter here as it has been discussed in the chapter dealing
with the working conditions in the factory. Suffice it to say that this
is a power which we contemplate would be used moderately and
only after careful examination of the facts and of the economic condition
of the particular industries or establishments concerned.

Inclusion of Smaller Factories.
The proposals made above are designed for application in the
first instance only to factories employing not less than 50 persons, but
provincial Governments may be given power to extend any of the provisions
 of the Act to factories employing less than that number where
in their opinion conditions Justify such action. We recommend that this
be done forthwith in the case of offensive trades such as tanneries and
shellac manufacture, irrespective of the number employed, in view of
the fact that in such trades the smaller places, which sometimes
predominate, are almost invariably the most insanitary. We also
recommend similar action in the case of industries, classes of establishment
 or individual establishments where an appreciable number of young
children are employed or where larger places have been broken up in order
to escape regulation. Again, it might be necessary to include certain smaller
factories in special cases in order to give proprietors of larger factories
adequate protection against unfair competition.
Further Advance atior Five Years.

Before passing on to administrative matters arising out of our
proposals, we desire again to emphasise that legislation of the sort recommended
 is to be looked upon essentially as a first step. A starting
age of ten years or a maximum working day of seven hours in the
case of child workers is by no means satisfactory, or anything other
than the first and very transitory halting place along the road of progress.