CHILDREN OF THE BUSH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11655, 10 June 1912, Page 2

CHILDREN OF THE BUSH.

The Bush Nurses engaged under the movement initeated by Lady Dudley are returning to Melbourne with stories of the fearful hardships which some children have to undergo, says a message to the Sydney "Sun." Instead of 'the youngsters in. the country being -rosycheeked and robust-, the nurtes draw a very different pictua'e. Down in the rich western district one of .them reports cases of children of ten years rising before the dawn, milking five or six cows before going to school, and.-returning to the bails again in the evening ns scon as their lesson.? a-re completed. The staple feed for nourishment in many of 'these homes np'peared to be cheap pickle, while the dwellings were hermetically sealed huts. Another nurse from Gippsland tells of whole families living in rooms eight feet square.-Tei-rible cases of neglect frequently occurred. A little boy ."truck his foot with an axe. The parents managed to stanch the bleeding, but the cut would not lisal. Someone recollected that electors often put stitches in wounds that would not close. The mother thereupon got the family needle and put several stitches in the little child's foot. -It grew worse instead 'of better, and after some weeks in bed the child had to be taken to the hospital eighty miles away, where the leg had to be amputated.