THE CRECHE AND KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14159, 27 September 1911, Page 4

THE CRECHE AND KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PEESS." Sir, —The members of the committee of the Crecho and Kindergarten Association find that there i 6 much haziness of mind regarding the work the Association has set itself to perform, so I trust you will allow a few words in recapitulation before the festival to bo held this week at the Theatre Royal. At the time of our late Mayor's election to office, Mrs T. E. Taylor, as Mayoress, hoped that she might, with the help of the women of Christchurch, institute this year one or several public nurseries or creches in, this city. Many women generously responded to her appeal for co-operation, and tho oommitteo having amalgamated with the Kindergarten Association was launched as a society, with tho good words and wishes of tho Church dignitaries and influential educational authorities of Christchurch.

Mrs Taylor'6 ideal, shared by the Association, is to help mothers who need assistance with their children, and to that end it is proposed to rent in various plaoes in and around Christchurch cottages which must bo roomy, sanitary, well-ventilated, and qf sunny aspect, where children may be kept for a few hours, or days, as the case may bo, in charge of experienced nurses and assistants, who will attend to the needs of tho children as faithfully and as ably as the best trained mothers. The infants' requirements of bathingj feeding, sleeping, and sunning, will bo studiously regarded, and it is desired that all mothers wanting help in this direction may feel assured that tho \est attention and most scrupulous care will be afforded their cn"dren.

Tho institution of creches, it is felt, is as much a need as the public school, since owing to tho strenuous and exigent circumstances of modern times, anothers who can obtain little or no domestic help suffer often very seriosly in health from the relentless round of daily toil. Further, too, as regards that large class of widowed mothers and mothers in poor circumstances, who aro bound, under present conditions, to leave their homes to seek a livelihood in support of their children, such an institution i 6 absolutely necessary if the children who are acknowledged to be tho State's most valuable asset, jure to havo tho fair and just start in life, we, as a community, should demand for thorn.

In many centres in Europe and America creches have been established and have most materially assisted tho broad movement which is making for the protection of infant life, so that Christchurch is introducing no new thing, but rather following at a distance the good lead taken elsewhere. In all cases where possible in tho creches, a small payment will be required in order that they may be, at any rate, partially self-supporting. Attached to the crehes which would care for the little ones under two, it is proposed to establish free kindergartens for the provision of the little ones tinder five who, after that age. aro eligible for the public schools. These It 6 * 3 are subsidised by the Government, and hence may bo counted also as partially self-snpport- "*%■ -rv ln ew Zealand/in Wellington and Dunedin, several such kindergartens have long been working, doing excellent service for the children. One kindergarten is already started at St. Albans, and the proceeds of the festival on Thursday. Friday, and Saturday, will be used by the Association to forward the work I have outlined M the ideal the president, Mrs Taylor, ~nd the Society, have in view.—Yours, etc., A. WELIS.