OVERWORKED CHILDREN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1726, 17 April 1913, Page 2

OVERWORKED CHILDREN.

DAIRY FARM CONDITIONS CRITICISED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Auckland, April IG. In their annual report oil primary education in the Auckland district the school inspectors draw attention to the very serious disadvantages under which many children suffer that livo in dairying districts. Jt not infrequently happens that .such children are obliged to work so hard, both before alul after school, that they are quite unfitted to undertake profitably the work'demanded in school with the result that their physical, as well as their .intellectual development, is grievously retarded. It is to be Tegretted, states the report, that parents, and the community generally, do riot recognise these facts, and aro not more ■ fully alive to their duties and responsibilities. To exact from children labour so continuous that the bloom and vivacity of childhood lingers but a few short years and leaves bch'ind it prematurely tired little men antl women—a sight unpleasant to behold in so young and promising a country is—the inspectors contend, an irremediable wrong to tho children and a menace to the welfare of the State.