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include "every dock, wharf, quay, and warehouse, and so far
as relates to the process of loading or unloading therefrom or
thereto all machinery and plant used in that process," and
building operations where steam, &c., machinery is used. This
new definition will bring a vast number of employes for the first
time within the Act. (4) The occupier of a factory or workshop
has various new duties, of a directory character, imposed upon
him. If he has not done so under the existing law, he must,
under a maximum penalty of five pounds, send to the Inspector
a written notice, giving the name of his workshop, and other
statutory particulars, before January 1, 1897. He must furnish
the Inspector every half-year with a list of his employes, whether
workmen or contractors, and the places of their employment,
and must also make an annual return of similar purport. Moreover,
he must, under a maximum penalty of ten pounds, keep a
register of accidents, open to official inspection, and comply
(an obligation, by the way, which rests upon a contractor also),
within a month, with any notice from an Inspector that his
factory or workshop is dangerous, and that out-work there must
be discontinued. In the case of textile factories, and of any
other class of factory or any workshop, if the Secretary of State
shall so order, the occupier must exhibit, where it can be easily
read, a statement of the rates that he pays for piece-work. But
these particulars are not to be utilised by workmen for the purpose
of disclosing trade secrets. (3) Finally, an Inspector of
Factories, if so authorised by the Secretary of State, may now
prosecute, or conduct, or defend any proceedings under the
Factory Acts, although he is not a counsel or a solicitor. Such
are the leading provisions of this important piece of legislation,
which both political Parties contributed to passing in its present
shape. There is, however, still ample room, and, indeed, an
urgent necessity, for an Act consolidating the Statutes in which
the Factory Law is embedded.
The new Act provides that a person charged with any
offence under the Factories Acts may give evidence in his own
behalf in the same manner as any other witness.