CHILD LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 October 1907, Page 2

CHILD LABOUR.

THE BISHOP AND THE DAIRYMEN. lieferring to the question of child labour in ■■airying districts, tho Anglican Bishop of Auckland (Dr. Neligan), in his address to the synod of his diocese last Friday, said:—"Last rear I mentioned tin's subject and suggested it as a useful mattor for investigation by tho branches of tho C.E.M.S. The replies to hand do not. lend much support to tho allegation that at presont there is any very prevalent carelessness in dairying districts iver tho health of children. There aro >instancos of very hard lives; but, so far as my informants have been able to ascertain, tho instances are not sufficiently numerous to suable any sort of general conclusion to be imved at. An inquiry of this 'sort is, jf course, exceedingly delicate, and great :are has to bo exercised in arriving at statistical conclusions. Our investigations :lo not, in any way, contradict tho theory I idyanced last year of there being a tendency to think i.noro of the care and requirements if urban rather, rural populations. ,At tho same time, .. there is no reliable evidence, ivithm our reach, of any general cruelty in ihesqnso of child labour in dairying districts. . It is, howover, .quito possible,that a too rigorous and' unsympathetic enforcement of the requirements of tho syllabus may press :ruelly not only on the children but also in tho teachers in'Stato schools in dairying iistncts. Howovor, this trouble, if it bo me, is growing less every year, fori I may perhaps bo- permitted to state here, in tho inspectors of tho State schools this country possesses a band of public servants devoted to thoir-.work and most self-denying in the iischarge of , their duty."