rties. The
main articles of diet are indifferent bread and butter, the fag ends
of coarse meat, the outside leaves of green vegetables, and tea, and
an occasional pennyworth of fried fish and potatoes. Children who are
supplied with milk at school, or who are given breakfast and dinner,
respond at once to the better feeding, and show distinct improvement in
their class work. The unemployment among the men obliges the women to
seek for work outside the home, and the under-payment of female labour
has its effect upon the nutrition of the family.

"'Investigation in the senior departments of one school showed that 144
children were being supported by their mothers only, 57 were living on
their sisters, 68 upon the joint earnings of elder brothers and
sisters, while another 130 had mothers who went out to work in order to
supplement the earnings of the father.

"'Approximately one-third of the children in this neighbourhood are
supported by female labour. With the mother at work the children rapidly
become neglected, the boys get out of control, they play truant, they
learn to sleep out, and become known to the police while they are still
in the junior mixed department.'

"The Girl Housewife.--The maintenance of the home, the cooking and
catering, is done by an elderly girl who sometimes may not be more than
ten years of age. The mother's earnings provide bread and tea for the
family and pay the rent, but leave nothing over for clothing or boots.

"Many of the boys obtain employment out of school hours, for which they
are paid and for which they may receive food; others learn to hang about
the gasworks and similar places, and get scraps of food and halfpence
from the workmen. In consequence they may appear to be better nourished
than the girls 'who work beyond their strength at domestic work,
step cleaning, baby minding, or carrying laundry bundles and running
errands.' For this labour they receive no remuneration, since it is done
for the family.

"A remarkable paragraph of the report roundly declares--

"'The provision generally at cost price of school meals for all who
choose to pay for them would be a national economy, which would do
much to improve the status of the feeding centres and the standard of
feeding. This principle is applied most successfully in schools of
a higher grade, and might well be considered in connection with the
ordinary elementary schools of the Council. Such a provision would
probably be