THE DAIRY CHILDREN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2233, 3 July 1908, Page 1

THE DAIRY CHILDREN.

A LIFE OF SLAVERY. (Sydney “Morning Herald.”) Anvtme who ever went to 'school in a daiying district cannot forget tlie children from the dairy farms, a set quite (ILstinet from other school children, who came to school late, sat stupidly through their lessons, and left- an hour before the others. To this day a whiff of sour milk in my nostrils' bring back a picture of the dull, listless faces of those tired milking children, and in memory 1 can still smell the stale milk upon their clothes, and the odour of the cow bail anil the pig yard which always cling to th-m. The children that 1 remember are now grown up men and women, perhaps with dairies of their own—for they certainly never learned enough to fit the for any other calling. but there has been another and yet another generation of the same stolid children, eacli decade showing them

more stupid still. For into these children's lives enter no joy and fun and brightness, nothing that sharpens the eye or tho mind, and nothing that trains their intelligence. For them life is one solid grind of dull monotony; up before daylight to milk the cows and feed calves, clean out the pig yards, wash the milk cans. By the time breakfast comes they

have done an average day’s work; then walk a mile or more to school, where a long-suffering teacher conscientiously endeavours to drill some knowledge into their sleepy, stupid heads. They leave school an hour before the other children and return to their cows and calves, their milking and feeding, and end up the day with an hour or so at the chaff-cutter. We in the cities receive at our

doors the butter and milk which make oir- children strong and rosy: but do we give a thought to those, others whose life is one long sacrifice to supply us with our needs? How many of 11s realise that in our midst there is a class of children being robbed vear after year of their natural lier-

tage. robbed of tho play and fun, and •ven vest, which belongs to cliild--100(1 by divine law. We all know of be tremendous ficrlit- in England to In away with child labor in the theories. Wo have all read Mrs. Brown-

ing’s immortal “Cry of the Children,” and our hearts have ached for tlioso youthful slaves; and yet we arc allowing in our own young nation a system of child labor to bolster up a rich industry.

Of course there is the other side. There is the argument that children shouM help their parents, that tho parents cannot afford to employ outside labor, and must depend upon tlieir own families to make their farms pay. But oil tho other hand, has any parent the right to demand a sacrifice from his child, which not only means a present giving up of all tho joys and privileges of childhood, but also arrest bis development and stunts his mental growth that ho

has no possible chance of ever rising out of the rut ill which he has been horn. And tho question arises, if (the present farmers had not been physically overworked and mentally cram pod as they wero in their youth, would they not- hayo now been in a position to give their children greater advantages? Mould they not bv tlieir education and intelligence havo been able to build up businesses that would Ifay men workers, instead of children. Anil tho evil goes on from one generation to another. One sot of children grow up stupid and stolid, and ovitii no knowledge of anything beyond tho milking of rows and rearing of pigs • tho.y in their turn take up the only work they aro fitted for, and becomo patents of anotfier set of children equally dull, equally tired, and equally circumscribed. And tho question must ho faced, is it to the best interests of tho State and tho nation that one class of the community.- should havo their whole mental development arrested in this way, should ho standing still, or even going backwards, instead of progressing.” Is filial duty to tako the place of duty to the State? Is anv industry, no matter how big and rich*, worth the sacrifice of intelligent men and women, of which the nation is being cheated by the dairying business :” The question whether the dairy children are being so trained is best answered by the fact that the present generation is going on in the same dull round that its parents anil grandparents went before it: ami if the existing conditions are allowed to

remain its grandchildren will still go on in the same awful routine, with the pathetic iia.tie.nce of tlieir own cows and the dull stupidity of their pigs. A pretty picture, indeed, for Australia, the land of tho free!