Slaves of the Canals

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 20

Slaves of the Canals

Floating Nurseries of Despair

Mr. Harry Gosling , M.I 3 .. who held a portfolio in the first Labour Government. tells of his campaign to effect reforms among the barge-dwellers on English

canals . . . ■ . ALLEY slaves can still be bought and sold. It mV?) j jfM) i] seems, in' the peaceful O 'O waterways of Britain. fIKSd iyxSP; Today there is a community of children whom all social reforms have passed by. The children for whom I plead are those horn on the canal boats aud barges. I have introduced a Bill to the House of Commons, and when I tell you the conditions under which these children are born and how they are reared to young manhood and womanhood, you will agree that legislation to save them should be passed at once.

Probably you have seen a barge glide leisurely along the canal, and the picture of the bargee contentedly smoking his pipe has filled you with envy. You may have thought that here was the only romantic-calling left in this mad mechanical age. But if you look through the narrow hatch you will see the badly-lit, badlyventilated cabin eight feet long, six feet high, and five feet wide. In this narrow space a father and mother and several children live their entire lives. Inside the cabin there is frequently a bed six feet long and three feet wide, and one narrow bench.

The ventilation is provided by a hole cut in the deck, around which is a raised iron frame, and into this is fitted a wooden cover with a glass top. This can be raised in good weather, but in severe cold it means a direct draught. In wet weather it means a soaking bed and a soaking cabin. Inside this cabin there is a stove for cooking, and the choice in cold and wet weather is between pneumonia | and carbon monoxide poisoning. In ! these cabins nearly one half of the | canal-boat children now alive were ; born. When the first child comes it is ; bad enough, and it is unnecessary for ; me to describe what it must mean j when succeeding children are born.

: queror conquered England and Jersey | belonged to him long before he ever \ thought of having a look at Britain. ■ But if it became necessary, rather ' than to offend France, they would I willingly give Minquiers to all the ! French bankers who desired it and retain the British Empire. They would not give the Empire to ; anybody, because they look on it as | one of their brightest possessions. ! M. Saurien, the French Consul, re- | cently left Jersey for Paris to disI cuss with the authorities there the j question of Minquiers.

Under such conditions it is not surprising that accidents from burning and other causes are frequent, and the death-rate from pneumouia and other respiratory diseases is extraordinarily high.

Children of five and six have been seen doing work that only men should do. Of a total of 37 workers seen within the past few weeks, 28 were under 12 years of age, 12 being girls. One little mite of five was walking at the horse's heels, driving down to a lock. A boy of eight and a girl of ten were sent to prepare the locks, and a girl of eleven still helps to work one boat and was last seen steering the boat. A boy of nine was found winding the paddle of the locks, and a girl of seven was recently observed working lock-gates. There are places, too, on narrow canals, where there is a chain of locks and here children are called upon to do tlie work of the horse and haul the boats.

Even if the little children of the canal boats were saved from all these sufferings and privations, I should still plead with Parliament to pass the Bill. Under existing conditions the canalboat child cannot possibly take its place in the world of ordinary men and women, because these conditions prevent even a glimmering of education. As one intelligent-looking boy, old beyond his years, said to me, “I can’t go to school because the boat always goes on.” What these children will eventually become concerns us all. We have no right to deprive a child of its privileges, no right to put it in a class apart from its more fortunate brothers and sisters.