CHILD TRADERS IN BRITAIN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1125, 12 May 1911, Page 5

CHILD TRADERS IN BRITAIN.

HIGHER AGE LIMITS. Bj TeleEra-Dh-Prcss Association-Copyright (Rcc. May 11, 9.30 p.m.) London, May Jl. Tho House cf Lords has carried a proposal to introduce a privato member's Bill providing that no boys under fifteen years of ago alul'iio girls under -eighteen years of ago aliall' be allowed to trade in the streets. THE PRESENT CONDITIONS. MORAL EFFECT ON THE CHILDREN. . The Departmental Committee appointed in 1909 by Lord Gladstone to inquire into tho working of the Employment of Children Act oi 1303 issued their report n few months ago. They made grave statements relating to the dangers of juvenile sheet trading, and suggest, vital changes in the law. The following is a summary of their recommendations:—

1. That street trading by boys be wholly prohibited by statute up to the age of 17'; 2. Street Iradiiig'by girls "to be similarly prohibited up- to an ago not less than 18;

3. The definition of street trading should not include the delivery- of newspapers and other goods by employees of tradesmen to regular custom. U's; 4. Local education authorities should have power to administer the law and provide facilities for giving advice and assistance in regard to suitable employment for children on leaving school; 1.'.,'.' , 5. Street trading cases should be heard in the Children's Court; and 6. Penalties for illegal street trading should be revised. The present state of the law regarding street trading, into the working of which tho committee were directed to inquire, .may be thus summarised:— /1. Absolute prohibition against children engaging in street trading under the age of 11; 2. Employment of any kind of children under 14 prohibited before G a.m. or after ft p.m. (subject to a power in the local authority to vary hours); 3. A penalty is imposed on any adult responsible for causing or allowing a boy under U or a girl under 10 to be in the streets for the purposes of trading between 9 p.m. and (i a.m.; and i. Between G a.m. and <3 p.m. a child who has reached the age of 11 is restrained from street trading only so far as. bylaws for this purpose have been enforced by the local authority. "We have come to the conclusion," the committee say. "after hearing a great deal of evidence bearing on tho point from many kinds of witnesses, that tho effect of street trading upon the character of those who engage in it is only too frequently disastrous. The youthful street trader is exposed to many of the worst of moral risks; he associates with, and acquires the habits of, the frequenters of the kerbstone • and the gutter. If a matchseller, he is likely to'beeome a beegar; if a newspaper seller, a gambler; the evidence before us was extraordinarily strong as to the extent to which betting prevails among the boy vendors of the evening paper's. There was an almost equally strong body of testimony to the effect that, at any Tatf- in crowded centres of population, street trading tends to produce a dislike or disability' for moro regular employment; that the child finds that for a few years money is easily tamed without discipline or special skill; and the occupationji.Me_H-.kich-sharpens the wits without developing the intelligence. It leads; to nothing permanent, and in no way helps him to a future career.