DRUNKEN PARENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 6, 26 May 1914, Page 2

DRUNKEN PARENTS.

HOW THEIR CHILDREN ARB AFFECTED. [London, April 11. "Drink and the Child" was the subject of an address deliviered by Mr Andrew Young, headmaster of Winongate Public Sfchool, to a large gathering of members of tihe Edinburgh Total Abstainance Society, in tihe Temperance Halls, South Bridge, Edinburgh. Mr B. Oodkran "SBlsrbet, the president, occupied tihe chair. (Mr Young said that notwithstanding tihe greater amount of investigation 'that was now being made, the number of l defective children of drunken parents 'Was increasing. To-day there were more than 160,000 wto were taloen care of wore or less by the parochial authorities. The ma jority of children bom of drunken parents were born diseased, and later became pauipers or inaana ; It had been pioved generally, too, that if the parents wera drunken the later-born; dhildTen ■were much more physically defective than the oarlier-born children, showing the increasing degeneracy of tile children from the parents. , Children of this effws also lacked moral training, and rtlieix physical oondition made the work of teachers viery hard. These (ShiJdren were not fit to master the subjects taught, | and the instruction was largeiv thrown away. It was also very largely these dhildiren who required carie in the (way of,feeding and cltofching. 'Mr Young or- F gued that the present social conditions; led people to drink. As a remedy he i suggested a reduction in the »uimber of [ licenses in the pooixa* districts,!n imi-' provem-ent in the housing conditions, and J the establishment of counter-attractions ■ to the public-house. In this connection lie paid a tribute to the influence of flower societies in the various wardM of the city those he snid, hairing the eff«-,t of causing parents to take a greater interest in their 'homes. While .these tfl'-inirs were very desirable, however, tie hold that they needed a- society on another footing than the present one.