She did not urge that the employment of children should be prohibited, but that it should be regulated. Incidentally, another thing that should be similarly regulated was the amount of the wages paid to children. Children had no trades unions to protect them, and the State might do something for them in the matter of wages.
No child, Miss Coad thought, should be allowed to work for more than two hours a day; if it worked in the morning it should not be allowed to work for more than one hour a day; and all work for children should stop at 8 in the evening.
The speaker moved - ''That the employment of children before and after school in certain types of work be restricted, the Medical Inspector of Schools to forbid the employment of children in certain cases, and to condemn certain types of employment for all children.''
The motion was passed.
Oval changing rooms
The project for the building of dressing accommodation on the Oval, Dunedin, deferred because of the influenza epidemic and the succeeding holiday period, was the subject of a conference this week between the City Corporation Reserves Committee and representatives of the Citizens' Committee.
The latter, in urging the necessity for such accommodation, with sanitary conveniences, pointed out that the provision of such was a civic duty devolving upon the council as trustees for the citizens, and stated that, having given the movement a practical start by raising approximately 100, they considered the council, with this sum as a nucleus, should now proceed with the erection of three or four suitable buildings.
The chairman of the Reserves Committee in reply, said that no one passing the Oval on a Saturday when sports were being indulged in could fail to appreciate the need for some dressing accommodation, but he doubted whether councillors would agree with the view that it was the corporation's duty to provide the accommodation. He suggested that the matter should be the subject of a further conference.
Helping mothers
A society is being formed in Wellington, to be known as the National Mothers' Help Society, which will be conducted as a branch of the Women's National Reserve, with the object of helping the mothers of the country, and by doing so helping the country itself to recover from its great losses through the war.
It is contemplated that the workers will devote a few hours a week to relieve the overworked mother by taking out her little children, and therefore allowing her time for rest and refreshment, to the end that she may be the better enabled to carry out her duties as a mother.
Shark bite at Tahuna
Tahuna Beach, Nelson, is a safe place for swimmers, provided that at this season of the year they do not venture too far out.
On Wednesday afternoon a young lady, who was swimming a considerable distance out, was bitten on the leg by a small shark. She managed to make her way safely ashore, but required assistance to walk, the wound being painful.
- ODT, 16.1.1919
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