The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, APRIL, 16, 1908. CHILDREN AND THE ENGLISH LICENSING BILL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 16 April 1908, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, APRIL, 16, 1908. CHILDREN AND THE ENGLISH LICENSING BILL.

Gratefttl as all who are interested in the. pressing national problem of the wastage of child life must be for the Government's recognition of an agitation which means the health of childhood, there are, says George- R. Sims, those who consider that publiebouse babies should have a place in the Children's Bill, rather than in the Licensing Bill. Briefly stated, Mr. Sims, and those who think with him, wish to keep tho babies not only out of the atmosphere of the piiblichouse, but out of the atmosphere of the publichouse controversy. They are quite right in the contention that the babies' position is entirely different "from that of any other habitue of the bar. The nursling and the young child' do not frequent publichouses of their own free will. They are taken in by their parent or temporary guardian, . and it has been abun-

dantly shown by scientific evidence of the most indisputable kind that this presence of a tender child in the ordinary crowded drinking bar is highly prejudicial to its health, to say nothing of its comfort. To do deliberately that which endangers the health or wellbeing of a child is an act of cruelty t-> the child. To take a baby habitually into a crowded publichouse and keep it in the heated- and tobacco-laden atmosphere for hours together—frequently until midnight—and then to take it out into the night air during all winds and weathers is a peril to infant life. If we accept these views—and they are thoso of the highest medical authorities in the land—it is self-evident that the question of babies and little children in publichouses should have found a place on a Bill seeking to provide for tho protection of infant life and the prevention of cruelty to children; but as the same time we cannot altogether, see that there is any valid objection to such provision being included in the Licensing Bill. We cannot see with Georgo R. Sims (<ttlie many reasons why the babies should" have been kept out of the heated discussion which was bound to rage round the new Licensing Bill.'' It is quite true that the child" in the publichouse constitutes only one factor in a perplexing problem; but surely it is better that the remedy for this particular evil should be prescribed and administered through the medium, best: calculated to reach the cause of the evil—the publichouse itself. George Jl Sims frankly, admits that his objection to the-exclusion of the publichouse baby from Mr.. Samuel's Bill and its inclusion in;Mr. Asquith's Bill is due to the fact that from the> commencement of the campaign he has been "concerned for the child from the humanitarian point of view, and net with the publichouse from the temperance point of view." This admission, we think- robs." tho objection raised by Mr. Sims of much of its fores. In any case, if what Mr. Sims siays is correct—and we are quite prepared to believe that it is— it is a matter of very little consequence whether these desirable provisions are included in one Bill or another, iat any rato from the point of view of the trade. Mr. Sims declares that the trade is not as a whole hostile to the suggestions that children, should be excluded from publiclumses. - He says:— "Long before the present agitation th? representatives of a retail trade organisation had expressed their willingness to assist in keeping children out of drinkin?r bars. The Midland Counties Wholesale . Brewers' Association bound itself by resolution to assist in preventing youngsters ccming*,en tt> licensed premises. During the last few months ] have received many letters from representative publicans iand from the wives of publicars assuring me of their hearty sympathy with trie movement." There are scores of authenticated cases of children being made drunk by the persons in charge of them while in publichouses. FMr. Sims quotes a quito recent case, as reported in a country paper of February- 29th :—" AY Coventry Divisional Ssssions on Friday, Clara Prestidge, single, of no fixed abode, was charged with being drunk and with neglecting her child, aged three and a half years. It was stated that the w<iman was drunk in charge of a little T>oy, who was also intoxicated, and whose clothes were saturated witl: whiskey. Prestidge was sent to prison for one month for neglecting the child, and fined lOs and costs or fourteen d'vtys for being drunk." The publicans, says Mr. Sims, do not want this scandalous state of things to continue. They do not want the "toddlers" in the tavern. In most cases there need be no heated controversy containing these- particular provisions of the Licensing Bill, and if it should happen that the Bill itsolf fails to become law the clauses relating To the exclusion of children from publichouses can then be easily embodied in some . other measure better calculated

to enjoy a quiet and pleasant passa?^ through th© Houses of Parliament., .