(3) _Regulation of Hours of Labour._ (_a_) _The Abolition of Legalised Overtime._ Allusion has already been made to the grievous defect which has gradually crept into and tended largely to destroy the efficiency of the Factory Acts. Evidence given before the Labour Commission, and furnished on many occasions in the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories by Her Majesty’s factory inspectors, proves conclusively that in the first place such overtime is injurious; in the second place, that it is often totally unnecessary; and, in the third place, that it is impossible to keep an effective check on the period during which work is performed. The character of that section of the Act which enables overtime to be worked may be judged from the following extract: “Where it is proved to the satisfaction of a Secretary of State that in any class of non-textile factories or workshops or parts thereof, it is necessary by reason of the material which is the subject of the manufacturing process or handicraft therein being liable to be spoiled by the weather, or by reason of press of work arising at certain recurring seasons of the year, or by reason of the liability of the business to a sudden press of orders arising from unforeseen events, to employ young persons and women in manner authorised by this exception, and that such employment will not injure the health of the young persons and women affected thereby, he may, by order made under part of this Act, extend this exception to such factories or workshops, or parts thereof.” Employers are thus permitted to work women and young persons--and a child of thirteen bearing her school certificate ranks as a “young person”--for forty-eight days in any twelve months for fourteen hours a day exclusive of meal times, in flax scutch mills, brick and tile making, parts of rope works carried on in the open air, Turkey-red dyeing and glue making (overtime being permissible in these cases because of considerations of weather), letterpress printing, bookbinding, lithographic printing, Christmas present making, firewood cutting, almanac making, ærated water making, and playing-card making (these trades being licensed because “press of work arises at certain recurring seasons of the year”), the making-up of any article of wearing apparel and furniture hangings, artificial flower making, fancy box making, biscuit making and job dyeing, and the extensive class of workers who are employed in warehouses in polishing, cleaning, wrapping, or packing up goods. The State itself also asks to be exempted from its own laws, and we find that, by an order gazetted September 16, 1889, the milling, perforating, and gumming of postage and inland revenue stamps are made the subject of legalised overtime. But the forty-eight days which are set as the limit in these cases are doubled in respect to that category of trades which deals with perishable articles, so that in processes connected with preserving