Institutional Training 77 



' grow out of/ and is very unproductive of muscular or nervous 

 energy. 



"Thirty-two per cent., or 55,500 children (in Classes III. 

 and IV.), are irregularly fed ; of the remaining 68 per cent., 

 or 115,700 children, placed in Classes I. and II., it is very 

 difficult to say what proportion of them are sufficiently fed." 



Let me add the following observations of Miss Williams on 

 the after-care and employment of children of school age : 



" In certain Urban Unions a good many out-relief children 

 of school age were employed out of school hours and on Satur- 

 days. Altogether we have notes of 66 so employed, 52 

 boys and 14 girls. Except for n children (5 boys and 6 

 girls) working in the Bradford mills, all are employed either 

 as errand boys and girls, selling newspapers, &c., in the 

 streets, taking round milk the boys also as golf caddies and 

 as barbers' boys, &c. 



" In Lambeth 1 3 boys are employed in these various 

 ways. A very large proportion of these, i.e. 35 per cent., are 

 described as dull ; and though the numbers are too small to 

 draw any conclusions from them, yet it should be remembered 

 that milk and newspaper boys often cannot get as much sleep 

 as growing children need, while the same is true of lathering- 

 boys in barbers' shops who are kept very late at night. In 

 Liverpool 17 boys work in much the same employment as 

 the Lambeth boys, and 3 per cent, of them are stated to be 

 dull or very dull. In Bradford 1 1 children work as half- 

 timers in the mills. These children work five hours at a 

 stretch, and attend school the other half of the day. ... I can 

 hardly believe that a child of twelve working for five hours in 

 the mill can profit much by his education in the other part of 

 the day. . . . The schoolmasters at Rochdale were loud in 

 their condemnation of the system, saying that the children 

 were not able to learn, and became quickly demoralised. 



" No Board of Guardians, so far as my investigations go, 

 takes any interest whatever about the placing and starting in 



