CHILD LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19779, 28 October 1927, Page 14

CHILD LABOUR.

Sir Allow me space for a few remarks on child labour. Take my own case. I was born and lived on a farm 15 miles from tlie nearest village and eight miles of that distance was a clay road. I never saw the village till I was 14 years of age, and I never saw the city till I was 16, when I went to get some teeth out. I started to learn to milk when I was five and there was one cow in the morning and one at night and help feed the calves. As I grew older there was more to do, but I soon learned to love the cows and also learned to get through my share of the work so I could get in a game of hide and seek before learning lessons. On the whole I had a rather hard time of it as a child, but looking back on that same life I am thankful my mother and father made me work, because now I am married and rearing a little family of my own on a dairy farm there is no danger of the cows being badly treated. If my husband has to be away on business I run the tliree-cow plant on my own and put through the herd of nearly 40 cows with just the assistance of Miss Four-year-old to drive the cows into the shed ks I let the others out. Ours is a concrete ,shed, whereas the one I learned to milk 'in was awful and the yard was worse. I am not round-shouldered or hollow-chested, nor am I weak-backed like a good many people in town of my age. If you -want good milkers start them early. My idea is give them plenty but not too much, give them something to interest them and keep them out of mischief Back-block. Born.

Sir, —The statements by " R.A.H." and " Reformer " are a slur upon the farming community of New Zealand. "Reformer ' says children are ill-fed on some farms. I (lo not believe it. No matter how plain the food may be, there is always plenty to eat. The physical and mental development of country children is far ahead of that of town children. Even if country children do help with the milking and other light work, is that not better than for them to be idling their time away and taking no interest in the work they may some day have to do themselves ? If country children were not taught the work they will have to do in time to come, what would -.become of the farming industry, the backbone of New Zealand. I did my share when I was young and going to school. At the age of eight years I used to milk seven cows before end after school, help to feed calves and poultry. I did my schooling and I can honestly say I never had a Clay's sickness 4n my life. The same thing applies to any number of other farmers of to-day and will still apply to hundreds more if the country children are left to their parents to look after instead of being criticised by others. As to the physical . and mental development of country children, some of the best and smartest men in New Zealand to-day are sons of farmers and have been farmers themselves. Take our late Prime Minister, the greatest statesman ever born. He was a hard-working and honest farmer. Oar present Prime Minister, clever and sound, was also'a farmer. Colonial Fabler.

Sir, —Surely the time has arrived when we oan make some progress on this matter. Our Child Welfare Association might get a definite opinion from medical associations and the Government medical officers in reference to the effect on growing children of having to keep going even 12 to. 14 hoars a day, and whether it is beneficial to their- health to he sittirg down, tired out, to the heaw meal of the day at seven-thirty or eight o'clock, especially when they have to be up before 6 a.m. Is it true that a greater percentage of illnourished children are found in the healthy surroundings of the country than in the towns ? Why not seek information from our boards of education, teachers* institutes and others whether the children who have such work to do retain as much grip 0 f the instruction given as those who do but little work? Is it really essential that children should have to do what they are doing ? The child is considered the greatest asset of a nation. Should any doubt be allowed to exist whether a section of our children is having a handicap placed upon their physical and mental development ? Evidently neither the churches nor the politicians have the moral courage to take up this question. Why not our child welfare associations unite, obtain the data; then mould public opinion so that the politician will net only talk about the nation's greatest asset, but remove, what seems to many, a handicap to the best physical and mental development of a section of it. Waitoa. P. Akmitage.