EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 92, 13 January 1919, Page 4

EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

SCHOOL TEACHERS' VIEWS. Miss Coad, speaking lit the Teachers' Conference on Saturday oij the subject of the employment of children, said that it was high timo that something was done in New Zealand to regulate the employment of children before the after-school hours. She did not urge that the employment of children should be prohibited, but that it should be regulated. Incidentally, another thing that should be similarly regulated was the amount of the wages paid to children. Children had no trades unions to protect tliem, and the State might do something for them in the matter of wages. No child, Miss Coad thought, should he allowed to work for more than two hours >a day; if it worked jn the morning it should not be allowed to work for more than one hour a day; and 1 all work for children should stop at eight' in the evening. The speaker moved'. "That the employment of children before and after school in certain types of work be restricted, the Medical Inspector of Schools to forbid the employment of children ill certain cases, and to condemn certain types of employment for all children! .Mi". W. 0. Lamb, in seconding the potion,' said' that the evil ~of 'child-; labour was widely prevalent in the country districts,' and was responsible to a large extent for the mental retardation of some children. Mr. J. D. M'Naughton thought that a correlated matter was the attendance of children at entertainments in the evening. This also should be restricted in the interests of the children them.selves. Miss M. M'Kenzie adduced evidence to prove that child labour existed fwriy extensively in some of the country districts. - . . Mr. J. C. Webb mentioned the ease of a child under twelve years of age who worked twenty-eight hours per week for the miserable pittance .of Ave shillings.' Mr. 11. M'Chesney asked what remedy was proposed for a case in which the parents' earnings required to be supplemented b,v earnings of the child. Miss Coad replied that the iiuestion oponnd up a bigger matter ihan she was prepared to deal with. Mr- Garry pointed put that in Engr land aji Act prohibited the' employment of any child under twelve. In addition, under the x provisions of the Act in question, no child of twelve or upwards was .permitted to be employed on any Sunday for more than two hours, or on anv school day before the closo of school hours, or on any day before 6 a.m. on after 8 p.m. The motion was carried.