Presentation Watches & Trophies

Lot 2654    Day 2    Presentation Watches & Trophies

Estimate $1,250
Bid at live.noble.com.au

KAIAPOI CLOTHING FACTORY, hunter pocket watch, in gold (9ct, tot wt incl workings 73.84g, 46mm), manual wind, white dial marked 'Baume/Longines', black Roman numerals, black hands, subsidiary seconds dial with black Arabic numerals at 10 second intervals, machine turned case by B&Co (Baume & Co), with garter on lid and this with shield inside inscribed 'JB', works cover inscribed 'A token of remembrance/From/A Number Of His/Fellow Employees/At The/Kaiapoi Clothing Factory/To John Banks/Nov. 5th 1903'. Appears to be in working order, hairlines on works cover and very small dent on back lid, otherwise very fine.

The following courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand - Papers Past, from the Press, 6 November 1903, page 5:^'A STRIKE IN CHRISTCHURCH.^TROUBLE AT THE KAIAPOI FACTORY. POPULAR FOREMAN'S DISMISSAL. RESENTED BY EMPLOYEES. Just on the stroke of 9 o'clock yesterday morning, crowds of indignant-looking girls were seen pouring out of the Kaiapoi Factory, opposite St. Paul's Church. It appears that the foreman of a room of about 175 employees, mostly girls, had been dismissed, and this led to an almost complete cessation of work by his subordinates.^^The strike actually began at ten minutes past eight o'clock, when all the employees, with the single exception of the cutting department, which is entirely separate from the other divisions, ceased work. The tailors, pressers, and machinists of the coat department, numbering 175 hands altogether, were the first to lay down their tools, and their example was followed by the girls of the trousers and vest departments, as soon as the action of their male co-workers became known. The employees of the trousers and vest department, however, resumed work two hours later, and the others resumed work at one o'clock. The circumstance which, before everything else, determined the hands in suspending their work, was the enforced resignation, at short notice, of a popular foreman, Mr John Banks, who was in charge of the coats' department. A subsidiary, cause, which could not have affected a large number of the hands, except from sympathy with the rest, and possible apprehensions for themselves in the future, was the alleged attempt of a new officer to introduce the "team" system among a number of girl machinists in Mr Banks's department. In addition to other disadvantages, it was alleged that the girls who were brought under this system were overworked.^^MR BANKS'S STORY. Mr John Banks, the request for whose resignation was evidently considered the main subject calling for protest, gave his story to a representative of "The Press" yesterday morning. He stated that he had been connected with the factory for 16 years, and had always given satisfaction to the previous managers. He had been on very harmonious terms with the employees also. Six weeks ago a new manager was appointed to the factory, Mr Isaac Solomons. On Wednesday night Mr Banks was asked by the new manager, at a minute's notice, to resign. He replied that he would not accept this notice to resign as he intended to see the chairman of directors (Mr G. H. Blackwell). Mr Solomons said that he did not wish Mr Banks to appear at the factory in the morning. "I came down, however," the ex-foreman stated, "to get some things which I had left. I merely said to the girls. 'Well, I was told last night, as I was going home, to resign,' and I thought it was a piece of injustice. I had not thought of their making any united protest, but they at once laid down their work, and stated that they would not resume it until I was reinstated."^^There were 175 employees in Mr Banks's department, of whom nine were men, seven boys, and the rest women and girls. They at once carried the news of their foreman's resignation to the other divisions of the factory, which also suspended work by way of protest. There was a great deal of dissatisfaction in the factory, Mr Banks stated, in regard to the appointment of Mr Solomons as manager. The team system, which had been introduced into the factory by the new manager, was very detrimental to the girls who worked under it, as one section of them were kept always putting on sleeves, another lot doing faces, and other sections each at one detail of the work exclusively, with the result that none of them could ever learn to make a complete coat, and they were incapable of obtaining employment outside the factory. Under the old method a girl was apprenticed for two years to a competent mistress, and she was supposed to learn to make the coat all through. Under the team system girls could never become capable coat hands.^^Mr Banks stated that he had been charged by the General Manager (Mr P. Hercus) with causing the disturbance, but he was merely a passive agent in the affair. He simply told the girls that he had been asked to resign, and they refused to work. Even after the employees had abandoned their work he exhorted them to return.'^^The following courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand - Papers Past, from the Star, 27 November 1903, page 3:^^'A deputation, representing the employees of the Kaiapoi Clothing Factory, recently waited on their late foreman, Mr John Banks, at his residence, and presented him with a gold watch, in recognition of his many kindnesses during the long period of his connection with the factory.'