UGLY FEATURES OF PRESENTDAY LIFE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 89, 11 October 1913, Page 6

UGLY FEATURES OF PRESENTDAY LIFE

CALLOUSNESS OF PARENTS LACK OF NATURAL AFFECTION. [SY TELEGRAPH— SPECIAL TO THE POST.] • AUCKLAND, This Day. An indictment of colonial parents that haa tho greater severity on account of its authorship is contained in the annual report of the Order of the Good Shepherd, an Anglican organisation which conducts a creche in the city. During the year 26 children were resident in the nursery while their mothers were in hospital, and 62 children were cared for from day to day while their mothers were working. "We refuse to take as resident children many infants," tho re- • port continues. " The utter callousness shown by parents whose only desire is to be rid of their children is one of the ugliest features of preaent-day life. The uumber of parents who seem without natural affection and who do not want to give themselves tho opportunity of loving their children is appalling. They are chiefly New Zealanders and are products of the present system of education." The crechft is intended for tlie asßistance of mothers who are unable to care for their little children during part of the day while they are working for the support, of their families, and of mothers who are incapacitated by illness and have no friends to whom their childi'en can he entrusted. There are numerous instances in the experience of the sisters, a reporter was informed last evening, of women attempting to secure the protection of the' creche for their infants in order that they may fed free for pleasure. On one occasion a young woman gave her children into the care of the sisters, and when questioned frankly told them that she was on her way to a skating rink.

In connection with Telephone Bureau messages, The Post and Telegraph Department has sent out a, notification that the practice of complying with the roquest ■of subscribers, that bureau messages be not accepted from their telephonos, is to be abolished from the end of this month: Such requests have so greatly increased of late that the Department is no longer able to give effect to subscribers' wishes. The practice has had no foundation except in the Department's desire to oblige subscribers to the beat of its' power. It has also been found that the responsibility of a subscriber to prevent the misuse of his telephone, and to make good the lostfes from such misuse, has not been lessened since- tho privilege hae existed.