BARB-LEGGED CHILDREN

Taihape Daily Times, 12 June 1919, Page 3

BARB-LEGGED CHILDREN

A DANGEROUS PRIACTICE. Tho questioll of the dressing of young children, and the practice of sending girls to school witht logs have to the thighs was strongly condemned at the annual coilfoH-1100 of Hll‘ Ot;:§;o branch of the Ecluca.ti~onal4_ Insfitn‘ro. (says the “Otago TimCs”')\ Ml‘ Tyndall moved: ‘”l‘h:lf in cold wcztther young uluildx-011 should not be sent to school with the gre«ntol' part of their legs bare.” He sai(l that the tendency of the dress of‘ some unfortunate youngsters —— lcspecially young gil‘ls—\\'ll»o came to school was to keep them in constant ill“-l1oalth. Little girls came. to his school with llothing on their logs at all. At the

some time their fathers——great powerful men——'—(lid not go out vvithuot at least two wrappings round their legs. (L:lughter.) What surprised him was the medical profession had not. taken the matter up. He could not help noticing and admiring the Albany Street School Band on the street, but he would have felt more proud of them if they had trousers on ‘instead of the shorts they "wore. (Renewed laughter.) He was afraid that these new-fatngled methods of dressing children meant trouble in the future. How, he asked, could the poor creatures hope to keep warm when the blood in its passage from the heart had to pass through a. frigid zone‘! Miss Andrew said thtat the expres-.~‘,-iCII some of them had for the clothing of the children described was “lamp shades.” In a. warm climate a. certain exposure of the legs and body to the sun was beneficial, but in a. climate like this the mode of dress referred to was altogether wrong. One of the medical ofiicers had taken up the matter in the north, rand how much more necessary was it that the practice should be discontinued in Otago? Mr G. \V. C. I\la.cdCnald said he had had to deal with this question of how the gii-ls—and especically the younger girls—\\'el'e dressed. No teacher could ltclp noticing how much children thus t.l:vfi.~'.<(*tl .<utl'el'ed. Mr ‘E’.-ennett said there was a moral aspect. He had seen girls of 13 or 14 years. exposed to indecent remarks through the folly of their mothers. The motion was carried.