The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1902. CHILD SLAVERY IN TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 101, 30 April 1902, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1902. CHILD SLAVERY IN TARANAKI.

• Since we last wrote on this question, the Taranaki Education Board, and the New Plymouth Chamber of Commerce have in strong, forcible, ye' moderate language repudiated the lib=l on our Taranaki dairy farmers, circulated by our Wellington contemporary. This is as it should be, and no pain* should be spared to prevent would-b:-philanthropists, carried away with a mistaken zeal, from harassing our most valuable class of settlers. The feeling of the members of the Chamber—men, be it remembered, who spend their lives going about amoagst the dairy farmers—was that the report of the Taranaki Inspector of Schools, which was read by Mr George, was a complete answer to the accusations. Mr Spencer's remarks are so much to the point that they cannot ba to widely published, especially as they were written before, and not since thß agitation commenced. Writing as long ago as April, 1901, Mr ; Spencer said :—" It has been often remarked that in dairying districts children of the tenderest years are required to undergo fatigue far oeyond their strength. Epithets such as 'white slavery ' have been freely used. But if we tske a less superficial view of present conditions, and recognise that a certain amount of hardship is inseparable from a pioneer life, I doubt if the prospect is not brighter than a easual glance reveals. Indeed, dairying has displaced a greater evil—poverty with its sordid attendants. Before it wa* well developed and established as a permanent industry, the children had to work twice as hard for a less return. The small farmer's struggle for existence was of tbe keenest, the efforts of the family providing scarcely the barest necessaries of life, and the children, being required during the day, were uoable to attend school rtgularly. Now, in winter little milking is done, but in summer time the children getup early and go to bed early, they go to school more regularly, and greatly participate in tbe results oi» their labours. They are better nourished and batter clad, their homes are larger and more comfortable, and the general conditions under which they live are vastly improved." Discussing the question of the effect from an educational standpoint, Mr Spencer goes on to say : " Yearly more and more pupils reach the highest standards, and these attend more regularly. In the lest six years the number of pupils who have passed Standard VI. has incressad 270 per cent, and the number psssin" Standard V. has increastd 220 per cent. These figures stnrtle one, and, though the increase may be tbe result- : ant of a number of factors, I believe i that the improved conditions have induced, on the part of parents, agrentcr interest in the welfare of their children, a»ni have enabled them to give effect to in."