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the age of five years. Representations have already been made
by your Council to the Local Government Board of the necessity
of bringing under the provisions of the Act persons who at
present contract out of the Act by receiving only one child. The
subject has been brought before Parliament by a Bill entitled
Infant Life Protection, presented by Mr. Staveley Hill. In this
Bill it is proposed to raise the age of children, who are to be
protected, from five to seven years, and to make the Provisions
of the Act of 1897 applicable to persons receiving only one
child.
A Committee of the House of Commons have had before
them special evidence upon this subject. The evidence given
by Mr. I). Thomas, Clerk to the Guardians of Bethnal Green,
has been most instructive and showed beyond doubt the provisions
of the 189 7 Act should be extended to control one-child
houses.
Mr. Robert J. Parr, Director of the National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, stated that the society
had cause to intervene in a number of one-child cases, and that
from January 1st, 1903, to June 30th, 1907, a total number of
cases reported to the society in London amounted to 97, and in
the provinces 2,001. Some of the children had been permanently
injured, whilst others had died of the treatment they
had received. In many of the serious cases the own children of
the family were well cared for.
It was stated that a large trade was carried on in the
adoption of one-child cases. From February 3rd to February
17th, 1908, 386 newspaper advertisements, excluding duplicates,
were discovered, ottering to adopt children, and in only 11 of
these advertisements was any reference made to taking more
than one child. The majority of these children boarded out
were illegitimate.