CANAL CHILDREN.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3115, 28 March 1883, Page 2

CANAL CHILDREN.

The following letter to a London contemporary lets light in upon another dark corner of English life:—Last Sunday a boat child was drowned in Long Buckley Locks. A few days previously, at the same place, a boat child was suffocated in'a boat cabin for want of fresh air. Neither of these cases would have happened if the Canal Boats Act of 1877 had been carried out in accordance with the Amending Bill I am humbly promoting, and which has been before Parliament during the last two Sessions. I know threo families of boaters who have at different times lost eight children by drowning. After gleaning these facts I met seven boats, the owners and boatmen of which were treating the Act of 1877 with contempt. In one boat there were two men and two women. In another boat there were man, woman, and four children in their teens. In another there were man, woman, and five chillren huddling together in suffocating igtmrauca in their wretched lit tly floating cribbed homes. My plan seeks to bring about the free education of the canal and gipsy children, and the renewal of the certificate of registration of the boats at a cost of 2s 6d for the captain and 2s 6d for the owner, without scarcely any inconvenience or trouble. It is time wo looked upon the education and welfare of 60,000 canal and gipsy children as of equal imporportanco for the country’s welfare to that of pigeons and sparrows, and if canal boatmen, boutowners, and canal proprietors were wise, even in their own interests, they would help to [get the Canal Boats Act Amendment Bill passed without one moment's delay.