§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Under Secretary of State for India, If he is aware that an extensive Factory system is growing up in India, without any Government supervision for the protection and health of the women and children employed; whether his attention has boon drawn to statements that these women and children are systematically worked for sixteen hours a-day, and in many cases even including Sundays; and, whether the Indian Government will adopt some such Factory legislation as we have in this Country for the prevention of such evils, before they attain greater proportions?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONThe Secretary of State for India is fully aware of the increase of the factory system, mainly confined to the Presidency of Bombay, and in a recent speech at Manchester he alluded at some length to this increase. Major Moore, the Inspector-in-Chief of the cotton department in Bombay, stated in his last Report that a large number of women and children were employed in the mills near Bombay, and that the hours of labour were long, not being at present limited by Government. He suggested that legislation would speedily be required. The Secretary of State, in a despatch dated the 30th of April, 1874, commended the subject to the best attention of the Government of Bombay. Recently the Secretary of State has received from an unofficial source strong representations of the evil result of the system alleged to be in force in Bombay, and the subject is now engaging his careful attention.