ox AVOMEN S LABOUR. 



33i 



the constantly wet condition of tlie floors, and the vapours caused by the 

 use of hxrge quantities of chemicals, combine to render the occupation one 

 to which the above mention of ' a healthy occupation ' in which women 

 may be ' happily employed' is not apposite. 



The numbers employed in open-air bleaching (in connection with flax 

 mills in Ireland) are a very insignificant part of the whole. 



The same cause which has contributed to reduce the proportion of 

 women in favour of men employed in the washing sheds of a steam 

 laundry will have opei'ated also in this trade, namely, the introduction of 

 heavy machinery, the rotary machines, the hydro extractor, and other 

 cognate machinery, while the use of mechanical drying horses and power- 

 driven hot-air propellers has also contributed to the same end. 



Bleaching and Dyeing. — Numbers in Factories under Inspection. 



Details for 1897 and 1898 {Children, only 1 jjer cetit. ofivhole, included). 



Millinery ^-c. 



As regards the statement as to the millinery, mantle, kc. trades, a 

 reference to the appended table shows that while 1,200 more men. were 

 employed in this branch of the clothing trade in 1895 than in 1890, there 

 is an increase in the same period of 7,750 women. 



In Miss Black's reply to Miss Boucherett in the ' Women's Industrial 

 News' of June 1898, she remarks that 'the real nature and tendency of 



' Excluding children. 



