CHILD "SLAVERY."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 46, 18 November 1907, Page 9

CHILD "SLAVERY."

A REFUTATION. (From Our Taranaki Correspondent.). The opinions of two Taranaki residents on tho child "slavery" question wero given a duy.,or two ago to the "Eltham Argus." Both of them are well-known and prosperous farmers and land-owners in the province and have seen farming under all conditions. Both of thorn, too, havo. been prominent members of local bodies, for somo years, and have had a good deal to do with tho dairy industry.

Tho first is Mr. James Boddie, of Eltham. H-2 characterised the charge of child slavory as ''bunkum," and said that during a connection with tho dairying industry in Taranaki dating back to its initiation ho had not come across a singlo case in which child labour was used to such an extent as to causo hardship. Ho contrasted the conditions of farming in Now Zealand with those obtaining in Scotland in his youth, and said •that the amount of work required of colonial children iu a dairying district was vory small compared with what used to bo expected of a Scotch lad. .In tho early days of Taranaki tho dairy farmor had a hard' struggle, and it would havo been surprising indeed if he had not expected and received sonio assistance from his family. Mr. floddic's own observations inclined him to believe that tho best results in dairy farming had been obtained by those families which stuck together and helped their parents after they had become capablo of looking after themselves. In these cases tho sons' usually fared better than thoy would'havo done had thoy worked for wages from the start. Ho had had a good deal of experience of share milkers, in whose families "child slavory" was chiefly alleged to exist, but his experience did not gc to substantiate the charge. Children of school ago who milked got up between 5 and G o'clock, and ten cows would be the extreme limit milked; seven or eight would be nearer tho average. The work was not unhealthy, nor yet arduous, and could not in any way be taken exception to. That a child occasionally fell asleep in school was ridiculous evidence, because any person, child or adult, might be excused for falling asleep at a dosk on a hot day, after a good dinner, while listoning to a dull instructor. Tho only point that could be at issue was whether the children got enough rest. If they were not in bed early in tho evening the fault'was their own, as there was no late work to be dono on the farm. Such conditions were healthier than those under which town children, lived, who, i/, they lay abed in tho morning, were up late at night. Mr. James Burgess, of Warea, chairman of the local dairy factory company, stated that for seven' or eight years no had been chairman of that company. His various offices caused him to travel right round Mt. Bgmont, through the most densely. settled dairying district in tho Dominion, at least once a month, and also to occasionally visit all' tho chief centres. _ Thus ho had ample opportunities for forming an opinion on tho subject of child "slavery." Before' the dairying industry had been placed on a sound footing, and-whilst .it had boon necessary to earn every possible penny to make onds meet, somo few instancos of children being overworked had coino to his notice, but lie could truthfully say that ho had had none such in recent years. In most cases children were asked to milk for not : moro than an hour or an hour and a half night and morning, according to their ago and strength,.and few of them appeared to Regard it as irksome. Many of them, let it bo. said 'to their, credit, appoarod very proud of.-their ability to help tneir fathers and mothers. In travelling through the dairying districts one cannot help noticing the number of. sports.meetings, dances, and. picnics \yhich were all thronged, or tho' vigour with which the school children played. He had noticed the children in Auckland only a week ago, and when compared with Taranaki children tho Utter came. out.superior in every point. Physically there was no comparison, nor, he .believed, morally 'either. Perhaps his notions, he i-aid, were antiquated, hut ho felt convinced that tho children of Taranaki wero physically no worse as the result of the milking, neither would they suffer mentally, by it; whilst motally thoy would bo infinitely bettor for it, "The pride taken in haing useful to parents, is ennobling; tho habits-in-duced by having something to do,must be valuable, and tend to make useful and selfreliant men and women; whilst running the streets is not conducive to that end." -