CHILDREN ON BRITISH FARMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3008, 20 February 1917, Page 3

CHILDREN ON BRITISH FARMS

NEARLY 15,000 OF SCHOOL AGE SOW EMPLOYED. The British Board of Education issued recently a summary of returns supplied by Local Education Authorities oi' children excused from school for employment in agriculture on October 16, 191 U. Applying to Euglaud and Wales the returns liavo been as follow:— Age. Boys. Girls. Total. 11 to 12 ... 389 ... 31 ... 420 12 to 13 ... 7,3-15 ... 494 ... 7.539 13 to 14 ... 6.059 ... 567 ... 1i,656 Total 13,823 1,093 14,915 Of the boys between 11 and 12 years of age employed in agriculture, 78 were in Cambridgeshire, 110 in ' Hunts, 4b in Somerset, and 111 in Worcestershire.. In Wales and Monmouth there were oi.ly two boys (no girls) exempted for fann work of this age. Counties with the largest number of schoolboys exempted from attendance for the purpose of agricultural employment are returned as follow:— t Beds 140 NoTthante .... '316 Cambß B<il Notts _ 531 Dorset SOl Oxford 330 Essex 333 Salop 413 Gloucester ... 303 Somerset 455 . Herts 6SI .Staffs 472 Hunts 567 Suffolk 200 . Kent 331 Surrey 2-S7 Leicester 313 Sussex 539 Lines. 908 Warwick 280 Middlesex .... 224 Worcester 541 Norfolk ;. 957 Yorks 1 HiJ The largest number of girls was in Worcestershire (UO), Herts (SO), Hunts (78), Linca (177), Sussex (55), and •- West Yorks (147). In the whole of Waios aDd Monmouthshire only 420 boys and f!6 girls up to 14 years of age were exeinpted for agricultural work.