, 1873-03-08

will be enabled to nurse her child at suitable
intervals and to bestow proper attention on it,
and during the second year she will not be re-
quired to leave the child at an early hour in the
mornings,-are taken from the Regulations Of
18th May 1887.
Judicious and proper care Of infants while
the mothers are at work is so sacred and serious
a duty on the part of the Estates, that it should
never be neglected. The Commission would
have no better wish in this respect than to have
been able to give the Estates Of this Island the
praise that special care has been evenced in this
point. There are, however, but too many es-
tates on which that is not the case generally,
the apartments used as Nurseries scarcely are
not in such a condition, nor the persons to
whom the care of the children is instructed pos
sessing qualifications to admit of The impression
that the Estates are really doing what could be
done for the children to thrive, or to encourage
mothers to have more concern for their offspring.
The Indifference evinced by the mothers them
selves, ofteutimes to an astonishing degree, might
serve as an excuse, but can certainly be no de-
Tense for that state of things in as much as it
is the employer, who ought to set a good exam
pie and to take the lead towards establishing a
better state instead of their being equally asindif-
ferent. But at the same time there are Estate
proprietors, particularly where they are residing
on their own Estates, who evince praiseworthY
care for the children, and it appears, too, that of
late greater interest is being taken in this part of
the labourers' life, which before the emancipa-
ton was of great economical significance, but
afterwards has been left too much to Itself.
1t is therefore with the e~xpection that the
enactment will in future be more voluntarily
observed or, if necessary, more vigorously en-
forced, that we have now embodied the old rule,
but in a more stringent form. The term of age
is fixed to 3 years, because beyond that age the
parents assistance to keep the children in the
Nursery could never be reckoned on. Hith-
erto the rule has been considered applicable to
children up to the age for entering school,
which at the time Of the Labour Regulations
was the fifth year, by the Ordinance of 1853
the sixth year.
The clause in the concluding part of the s, and
which is taken from the Ordinance of 25th July
Oath August 1867, might be as well in its
place as the concluding section of 10, if pre-
ferred. 1t is a matter of course that the rule
will be all the more applicable when the sick
labourer is laid up in the Estates Sick Houses,
where such are still kept; SO that special men,
ton of that appears to be superfuous.
The rule concerning what persons may be alb
sent from work in order to attend a sick, has
been considerably extended.
ad ) %.
AS the Driver or Foreman on the Estate ex-
%ercises, and in our opinion ought to continue to
EXCISE a sort Of police-authority we have
thought it best that the Policemasters should as
hitherto be in a position to control what persons
are employed as Drivers; but instead of exer-
oising that control through the discharge of the
individual, as is now the case, we have proposed
that it be exercised by making the appointment
of drivers dependent on the consent of the Po-
lioemaster.
ITO be continued