THE ASSETS OF THE NATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1915, Page 5

THE ASSETS OF THE NATION.

A PLEA FOR THE FAMILY MAM. ■' !"j| BONUS ON CHILDREN SUGGESTS©, |l| By Telegraph.—Special to Daily Wellington, Last Night Sjraß Tho payment of bonuses on cMldlwOl under fourteen years of age waft one *l9 of the suggestions made by Mr. .T, 1 *-li| Craigie (Tamaru), in the course of speech in the Budget debate. Mr. Crajgjji, 'jM said that it was quite time for iw'-'lfffl Zealand to recognise that children the most important assets of the and that parents were being handicappid ~Jfi in scores of .ways. The father had to 'i\M compete in the labor market and where with the bachelor and the child* loss man. He had to pay more than .ffi his competitors did for food, rent, and-»-l| clothing;. He had to meet landlords who 'Jm objected to letting their houses to'-fupU lies containing children, and employer! ; ? who made the iniquitous stipulation" l 'ntt /$B encumbrances." Yet the family maav'v™ was performing the greatest of B<jrvtoei.~S| to the nation, and the least that'tbi viS State could do was to see that he w»» WSi not handicapped unfairly as compared ,'£§& with the single man. The member lor Timaru suggested that the State tnould ' M pay an annual bonus on each child under *iS fourteen years of age. 'ia|| He added that it was a remarkable, ;>iM and rather shocking, fact that the people s'Jla who could afford to -raise large famines J/M without privation, or even ineonvenienos 'iM to themselves, usually had very small ,'<js| families. They left it to the compare' '">« lively ill-paid worker to build up manhood and womanhood of the nattott) r '"M