Government have power by Order in Council to suspend the whole
operation of the law in order to prevent anything like a serious
crisis arising in the coal trade.

I cannot bring myself to believe that with all these safeguards it
will not be possible for the coal industry, if given time, to
accommodate itself to the new conditions. It is only two years ago
that I was invited from the benches opposite to contemplate the
approaching ruin of the gold mines of the Rand through the change
introduced in the methods of working. That change has been enforced,
with the result that working expenses have been reduced, and the
standard of production has increased. In making that transition, if
time had not been allowed to tide over the period of change, then,
indeed, you might have had that disaster which hon. gentlemen opposite
have always been ready to apprehend. But there is here to be a gradual
process of adaptation, for which not less than five years is
permitted.

We are told that positive reasons, and not negative reasons, ought to
be given in support of a measure which regulates the hours of adult
labour--that you ought to show, not that it will do no harm, but that
good will come from it. There are, of course, such reasons in support
of this Bill, but they are so obvious that they have not been dwelt
upon as much as they might have been. The reasons are social reasons.
We believe that the well-being of the mining population, numbering
some 900,000 persons, will be sensibly advanced in respect of health,
industrial efficiency, habits of temperance, education, culture, and
the general standard of life. We have seen that in the past the
shortening of hours has produced beneficial effects in these respects,
and we notice that in those parts of the country where the hours of