FACTORY CHILDREN EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION BILL.
The bill introduced by Sir Jas. Graham provides that in any factory (or establishment for the manufacture of hair, silk, flax, tow, hemp, or jute, by mechanical power) no child under eight years of age shall be employed at all; no child (under 13 years) or young person (under 16) shall be employed without a medical certificate of age and fitness for work ; no child shall be employed more than 6½ hours in a day, nor any young person more than 12 hours, and neither child nor young person by night—except for recovering time lost by stoppage of works, for which purpose they may be employed an extra hour per day for a limited time ; that an hour and a half at least shall be allowed for meals, not to be taken in the work rooms; that machinery shall be enclosed or guarded; and notice of any accident from machinery be given to the certifying surgeon. The parent, or person benefitting by a child’s wages, shall cause the child to attend some school at least three hours a day on five days in the week, between eight in the morning and seven in the evening, except in case of sickness or accident, or holiday allowed by the Act ; the employer to obtain a weekly certificate of such attendance at school, to produced to the Inspector when required, and to pay a sum not exceeding 3d. per week towards the education of the child, and to be entitled to deduct from the child’s wages any sum so paid, not exceeding one-twelfth of the wages ; that the Inspectors may report any school unfit or improper, and thenceforth attendance at such school shall not be deemed a compliance with the Act. In addition to the four existing Inspectors, 18 Sub-Inspectors may be appointed by the Secretary of State, who shall have power to enter any factory by day or night, to examine witnesses, &c. Notice of the opening of every factory to sent to the Inspector’s Office in London. Certifying surgeons to be appointed by the Inspectors to examine children, &c.; certificates from other surgeons not to be valid, unless countersigned by a magistrate ; the surgeon’s fees for examining to be fixed by Inspectors. Schools for factory children to be under the management of Trustees, consisting of the minister, or one of the ministers, of the place or district, and two churchwardens, or two nominees of the clerical trustee if the churchwardens refuse to act, and four trustees annually appointed, by the justices at petty sessions, from the ratepayers of a certain assessment, or from the subscribers of not less that one-tenth of the cost of the school; the donor of a site for a school to be a trustee for life ; such trustees to regulate the management of the school, to appoint masters, &c. subject to the Bishop’s approval of their competency to give religious instruction, and to dismiss them for misconduct. The master to teach the scriptures from the authorised version, and to use no other religions book, except during such period, not exceeding one hour a day for each scholar, or two hours per day in the whole, as the Clerical Trustee shall fix for teaching the Catechism and Liturgy of the Church, and such other religious instruction as he shall direct, daring which period no child, whose parents object on religious grounds, shall be required to be present at such religious teaching, but shall be instructed in some other branch of knowledge. No Inspector to inquire into the religious instruction directed by the Clerical Trustee, unless authorized by the Archbishop or Bishop. The children to attend Church service at least once ever Sunday, unless the parents object on religious grounds. The trustees of any school in which the Church Catechism and Liturgy are taught may, on application to the Committee of Council on Education, be empowered to adopt the provisions of this Act to the constitution and regulation of the school and the appointment of trustees, and have a district assigned to them to contribute towards their maintenance; but the existing trustees to remain, in conjunction with those newly appointed. Schools hereafter established by voluntary subscriptions wholly, or with the aid of the Committee of Council, being constituted and managed according to the provisions of this Act, and being certified as necessary for factory children, shall have districts assigned to them by the Committee of Council to contribute towards their maintenance, and trustees to be appointed as above, in addition to the then existing trustees. When subscriptions are insufficient, but not less than one third of the necessary sum, the Committee of Council may authorise an inquiry by justices at pettv sessions, and upon their report of the necessity for such school, may authorise the borrowing of one-third, to be repaid, with interest, in ten years out of the poor-rates, or one-half, if the other half be raised by voluntary contributions. The overseers of any district assigned for the maintenance of a school to pay the same required by them out of the poor-rate. When a school has been certified as fit for education, no child shall be employed within two miles of it without a certificate of attendance thereat, or at a "National” or "British and Foreign Society’s ” school, or school in connexion with the factory, or Roman Catholic School in the case of Roman Catholic children ; such schools being certified by the Inspector as efficiently conducted, and children of the Church in factory schools being instructed in the Catechism and Liturgy. The Committee of Council, after the annual audit by the Inspector, to order the amount to be raised by overseers towards the maintenance of any school, not to exceed a certain assessment in the pound, to be fixed by the Act. The penalties on employers and parents for employing children and young people in any manner contrary to the Act vary from 10s. to 5l. for not guarding machinery or failing to give notice of accidents, from 5l. to 20l., and in case of any accident occurring from neglect, after notice, to fence off machinery, from 10l. to 100l., which may be applied to the benefit of the injured party : for obstructing any inspector, from 3l. to 10l.; for false certificates, entries, or evidence, from 5l. to 20l., or six months’ imprisonment; such penalties (except as above) to go in aid of the education of factory children.