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Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 315, 14 January 1908, Page 4

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TARANAKI. MR IfAXAK-S OBSERVATTONfH Mr J. A. lianan, M.P. for Invercargill, who had an enforced stay in the North Island for several weeks, passed through Dunedin last week on his way back to/ liivert-argill. During his sojourn lu the c-uief dairying districts of the Dominion, .Mr Italian made it his business to go out into the country and on his own account make enquiries into the charges of child slavery iu connection with the dairy industry as carried on in Taranaki. "As the result of my stay in Taranaki. and of niy observations and enquiries," he said, "1 am bound to say that the allegations regarding child slavery are exaggerated. Instances of the undue use oi children in the working of dairy farms are to be found licre and there, but as a whole there is nothing to justify the strong statements that have lieen made regarding the ill ] effects attending the employment of I joiing people in the dairying industry. j Ooncrally speaking, many children whom , 1 saw presented as healthy and robust | an appearance as any to lie seen in the I Dominion. I would'say this, that the | children of Taranaki do not have the i same play as do the children attendin" i the town schools." J He went on to say that the early rising necessitated by the dairying industry had certain healthful effects'and urged that the healthiest boys at work in London were those engaged in delivering newspapers, whilst the unhealthiest were those engaged in hairdressing saloons. Mr Hanan, after a careful scrutiny of the dairying industry as carried on in Taranaki, is of opinion that the work entailed on the young children of dairy farmers is not prejudicial to the best interests of those children.