PUPILS WORK BEFORE ATTENDING SCHOOL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19154, 21 August 1930, Page 15

PUPILS WORK BEFORE ATTENDING SCHOOL.

ARE BEING DISCOVERED ASLEEP AT THEIR DESKS. Per Press- Association. WELLINGTON, August 20. Employment of school children in the early hours of the morning before attending school was brought to .the ' notice of the Wellington Education Board to-day, when it was stated that ' boys were up as early as two o’clock in the. morning to go on milk rounds . and, in consequence, had been found J asleep at their desks in-school: It was further affirmed that the practice existed in many places in New'Zealand, | and w r as not peculiar to Wellington. Inquiries are to be pursued. An official report upon visits to - schools had been .made in committee, 1 and it was during the amplification of that report that the discussion arpse, the chairman agreeing to the jmblication of the general discussion. A visit had been made to a school . in the suburbs and a brief talk was given to the children in the upper standards. It was noticed that one boy went to sleep at his desk. A visitor remarked to the ..boy as: he went away, “You are tired, aren’t you?” “Yes,” replied the.boy, “I have been up since two o’clock this morning.” Another boy sitting close by followed tip.by remarking, “Yes, and I was up at half-past two/’ . . Further inquiries: revealed that the boys were employed in the early-hours on a milk round and had done four or five hours' work before going to school. •