CHILD SLAVERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 402, 29 April 1902, Page 2

CHILD SLAVERY.

INDIGNANT REFUTATION. (Per Press Association.) ! NEW PLYMOUTH, last night. ' At, a largely attended meeting of the Chamber of Commerce to-night the question of child slavery in connection with the dairy industry was discussed. Extracts were read from the report of the Education Board’s Inspector to the effect that dairying displaced a greater evil than pp.ertv witl- its sordid attendants. Before its establishment as a permanent industry children had to work as: hard for less return. The small farmers’' struggle was the keenest, the efforts of the whole of the family scarcely providing the barest necessaries of life, and the children being required during the day they were unable to attend school regulariy. Now in winter little milking was done, —but in the summer months the children got up early, go early to bed, go to school more regularly, and greatly participate in (he results of their labors. They are in better homes, which are larger and more comfortable —and the general conditions are vastly improved. The following resolution was passed unanimously with respect, t(> an article in the Evening post under the heading “ Child Slavery in :Taranaki ” “This Chamber, from its own knowledge and from the report of the Inspector of Schools, confidently asserts that the physical and mental status of the children is vastly improved since the establishment of the dairy industry in Taranaki, and can challenge comparison with the children of any other district of the colony.”-

Who should milk the cows '! The thousands of young men we have sent to Africa .' Did it not occur to the Post that the Government has drained New Zealand of its young men, and that if children are not to milk, then the cows must run dry, and the parents must lose their means of livelihood. Our contemporary calls the child milkers “ little white slaves ” ; but we should prefer to call them “ the little heroes of New Zealand ” —heroes who at a tender age earn their own living cheerfully arid readily.

We are all slaves of one kind or another, but the servitude of children to their parents is by no means the worst kind of slavery. Even Mr Seddon is a slave. When we come to think of all he has gone through the last month, we are astounded at the immense amount of work and fatigue he has undergone—milking a dozen cows a day would be nothing to it.

We venture to say that the boys and girls milking up country are stronger, healthier, and happier than the boys and girls living in the City of Wellington, and that our contemporary, the Post, has only looked 1 upon ope side of the question when it calls ' them “little white slaves.”—Wairarapa I Daily Times, e \