EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 55

EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

SCHOOL TEACHERS' VIEWS. Miss Coad, speaking at the Teachers' Conference on the 11th on the subject of the employment of children, said that it was high time that something was done in New Zealand to regulate the employment of children before the after-school hours. Sho did not urge that the employment of children should bo prohibited, but that it should be regulated. Incidentally, another thing that should be similarly regulated was the amount of the wages paid'to chil ddren. Children had no trades unions to protect them, and the State might do something for them in the matter of wages. No child. Miss Coad thought, should be allowed to work for more than two hours a day; if it worked in the morning it should rot be allowed to work for more than one hour a day; and all work for children should stop at 8 in the evening. Tho speaker moved —"That the employment of children before and after school in certain types of work be restricted, the Medical Inspector of Schools to forbid the employment of children in certain cases, and to condemn certain types of employment for all children." Mr W. O. Lamb, in seconding the motion, said that the evil of child-labour was widely prevalent in tho country districts, and was responsible to a large extent for the mental retardation of some children. Mr J. D. M'Naughton thought that a correlt-ted matter was the attendance of children at entertainments _in the evening. This also should be restricted in the interests of the children themselves. Miss M. M'Kenzie adduced evidence to prove that child-labour existed fairly exten sively in some of the country districts. Mr J. C. Webb mentioned the case of a child under 12 years of age who worked 28 hours per week for the miserable pittance of ss.

Mr H. M'Chesney asked what # remedy was proposed for a case in which the parents' earnings required to bo supplemented by earnings of the child.

Miss Ooad replied that the question opened up a bigger matter than she was prepared to deal with. Mr Garry pointed out that in England an Act prohibited the employment of any child under 12. In addition, under the provisions of the Act in question, no child of 12 or upwards was permitted to bo employed on an v Sunday for more than two hours, or on any school day before the close of school hours, or on any day before 6 a.m. or after 8 p.m. The motion was carried. :