JUVENILES IN PANTOMIME

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 9 May 1921, Page 3

JUVENILES IN PANTOMIME

KEPT AWAY FROM SCHOOL

Ten Auckland parents, whose children took part in the "Sinbad the Sailor" pantomime at His Majesty's Theatre recently, appeared before Mr. J. "W. Poynton, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, charged with having permitted the children to be absent from school for three days in' March in order that they might attend rehearsals. The; children were mostly girls of from Bevert to thirteen yejirs of age, and were in the second or third standards at the public schools. The truant officer, Mr. H. S. Small, who laid the informations, said the children had. been engaged by the manager of the company through, an advertisement. One of the mothers, in reply to a question from the Bench, said her eight-year-old son had received £1 a week for his work in the pantomime. "The manager is running a risk," commented Mr. Poynton, "by so encouraging people to break the law." According to one parent, the manager, when asked about the risk involved in the children being kept away from school, replied that the matter would be safely fixed up. ' Two or three of the mothers, when asked if they had anything to say to the charges, expressed objection to the inference that the children had been harmed by the action. The part "the little ones had taken in the pantomime had been a change for them, said one mother, and they were all the better for it. Her daughter had gained half a stone in weight as a result of the holiday it had been for her.

Fines of 10s each, with costs! 7s, were imposed on nine defendants. "I'm not going to pay the fine, if they give us years/ asserted one defendant, indignantly, when the decision of the Court was announced. One woman, whose little girl had gone to Wellington with the company, attended by a governess, was fined 2s and costs 7s. One, whose daughter recently played the part of Little Eva in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the King's Theatre, was fined 2s and costs 7s.