THE CHILDREN AND THE DAIRIES

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 34, 4 November 1907, Page 6

THE CHILDREN AND THE DAIRIES

SIR ROBERT STOUT'S ALLEGATIONS. BT TELEGEArH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—fIOPIEIGM. ■ Eltham, November 2. Reference is mado by the Eltham "Argus" to Sir Robert Stout's remark at Gishorne, that, "In 'I'aranaki and . other places -the prices of land have gone up so that people make their children slaves. The price of land is so high that they cannot pay for labour, and have to depend on their children, who are being worked to death." , , Tho "Argus" publishes interviews with farmers, doctors, and old school teachers, and a general denial of the charges is made. Mr. T. O. Hodgson, chairman of the Eltham Dairy Company, says that, lib'has heen connected with the industry sirice its inception, and knows of no case. One road occurred to liim along which 500 cows were milked, and only one family was engaged. Tho .children' attending school did not usually do moro. than an hour-and-a-half'js ■' milking in. the morning, doing the easiest cows. A farmer would not let his children milk- full cows because he knew they, would bo spoiled. Usually there was a clause in.a share-milking agreement that children under a certain age should' not milk. Generally speaking farm-: ers , wives and families who milked were not up till 5 or 5:30 a.m., .and went to bed early. . Mr. Jacob Marx ; chairman of. the Mangatoki Company, said the cry was claptrap. In some cases children were forced to milk a little because no milkers offered oven' at a wage of £2 a! week. Mr. T. Thomas, headmaster of the Elthamschool, said that children might get up at o o'clock and milk four or six cows. Six years ago he found that a Standard V girl milked 15 cows, and a Standard II boy 12. He knew of no cases now. Though some five, children missed part of their lessons in order to milk, more homo lessons could bo done now' than formerly., . - '■ '•'-..' Mr. A. A.-Hinte, director of technical education at Wanganui School,'said that it was difficult to get-children to do home lessons in a dairying district. Local doctors stato they never came across children suffering- from ovonvork in milking.' The children of the prqvinco were exceptionally healthy arid strong. •