CRUELTY TO CHILDREN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5, 1 February 1906, Page 20

CRUELTY TO CHILDREN

DAIRYING AND CHILD-SWEATIN(J

, The high prices being paid in many instances in the north for land for dairying purposes (writes the Wellington correspondent of the ' Otago Daily Times ') makes it "almost impossible for the purchasers to make a good living if they have to pay for labor. Accordingly the children of the family in many instances have to do the drudgery connected with the dairying, and there can be little doubt that occasionally this has led to great hardships having to be endured by the very young chifdren. The " Post ' has for some time past been 'taking a special interest in this matter, and schoolmasters and others have forwarded facts in connection with it. In Monday's issue a schoolmaster who has had three years' experience in a dairying district gives two very marked cases of the ' sweating ' which came under his notice— cases which, he says, ' cause a feeling of revulsion when one realises that such an awful state of affairs is allowed to continue unchecked in this highly-legislated country of ours.' Here is his first case c it is that «of a lit- tie girl of 12 years' of age who attended the school of which he had charge. ' She was rather a weak child, small of stature, and in my opinion, totally unfit to do even half the work which she was called upon to perform. Her father had leased a 90-acre section, off which were ( milked 22 cows. Work at this particular farm began at 5 o'clock in the morning, and at that early hour this little girl had to arise and go out in All Kinds of Weatner into a poorly-built cowshed, where she milked regularly her 12 cows. This duty o\er she had to run off to her breakfast, prepare herself and frequently her little sisters for school, to which she had to travel two miles over a rough road. She was often late, and when at her lessons appeared weary and tired, and lacked the freshness of her more fortunate schoolmates. School over, she had to walk home and again go through the drudgery of a task similar to that of the morning. She usually retired at 8 o'clock, having been on the move for 15 hours during an average day. I had occasion once to draw this unfortunate child's attention to the way in which her writing was falling off, and on my asking her the reason she showed me her hands The* tiny things were stiff and hard, but, worse than all, they were cracked across the palms and in the finger joints, exposing the raw flesh, and causing her most irritating pain. Upon my questioning her as to how her hands got into such a state, she replied that it was caused by milking, This little one was in the Fifth Standard, and was striving hard to do satisfactory work in order to be promoted at the end of the year and so leave school, the Truancy Act making it compulsory that no child shall leave school until he has reached the ago of 11 years or shall have passed the subjects of the Fifth Standard. Legislation demanded this child's attendance at school, but no legislation prohibited the distressing and deplorable stale of affairs under which the unfortunate child lived and worked in her home.' This is A Specially Bad Case, but the other example is not much better. It is useful to illustrate a specially regrettable aspect of the question. ' The other case,' he says, 'is that of a 12-year-old, boy who, having been promoted, to the Sixth Standard, wasi taken from school to work on his fat'her'si section. Me was bright and intelligent, and was making fine progress in school, despite the fact that he milked his eight cows night and morning, besides frequently bringing the cows in preparatory to milking To my mind this boy would have made excellent progress in whatever walk of life he took up in which literary attainments were a qualification, but his father told me upon my remonstrating with him for taking his boy from school so soon, that he required his help on the farm. I learned afterwards that his daily work, beginning at 5 in the morning, consisted of bringing in the cows, 30 in all, milking 8 to 10, morning and evening taking the milk to the factory, mustering cattle when necessary, and assisting in such work as repairing fences and outbuildings, cutting firewood, ana~ in the many odd jobs to be done about a farm, ending the day by letiring at about 9 o'clock— and this boy was^ohly 12 years of age.'