CARE OF CHILDREN

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1933, Page 9

CARE OF CHILDREN

LORD BLEDISLOE’S EXPERIENCE.

[PER press association.]

AUCKLAND, July 4.

Tn commending the work of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children, in an address last evening, His Excellency, Lord Bledisloe, said:— I am surprised, and a little shocked to read in the paper that it is possible and even legitimate for children of 12 or 14 to get married. I cannot help thinking this is a matter upon which public opinion might properly be expressed, so that the Government, if it feels that the public has strong views on the subject, might be persuaded to make some alteration. Of course in this, as in some similar matters, the Government would not be justified in taking action unless it was fully persuaded that a large part of the body politic is behind it in any ameliorating action. .No citizen, he added, could throw off a share of the responsibility for the evil domestic conditions and resulting immorality and crime. It was the duty of each according to his or her ability to do what was possible to ameliorate such conditions. The remedies most likely to be effective were education, home influence, and perhaps most of all environment. The financial burden of crime, lunacy and disease, much of which was bred in slum surroundings, was fully ten times the cost of wise preventive measures. This was illustrated by an experience he had had 20 years ago, when he found himself with a number of other Gloucestershire landowners, opposinga plan to provide food for children in the poorer schools during the winter. It seemed at that time that the scheme would tend to pauperise working people, that it would be a burden on the ratepayers, and be open to abuse in administration. However, after five years’ study of statistics, he found that he had made a profound mistake. The effort to enable children to go to school properly nourished had proved one of the best investments ever made.