1. The Act to a great extent is permissive. 2. Proceedings cannot be taken against the boatmen and boatowners for evading the regulations of the Local Government Board—the most important of all. Breakers of this Act can be brought under the lash of the law, but breakers of the regulations cannot. 3. The Act of 1877 is placed in the hands of the local registration authorities to carry out, consequently the expenses fall upon the ratepayers, and the result is that the local sanitary inspectors, or registration officers, have had but little added to their salaries—in many instances nothing—and with strict orders not to go beyond their town or city boundaries. Thus it will be seen that boats plying between the registration districts, which are as a rule between twenty and fifty miles apart, are left to themselves. 4. Another oversight in the Act is the non-annual registration of the boats, and consequently there have been no fees to meet the expenses. It was intended from the first that there should be an annual registration of the boats. 5. The want of power in the Act to enable the Local Government Board to appoint officers to supervise, control, inspect, enforce, and report to Parliament upon the working of the Act and the regulations. 6. Another cause of failure in the Act has been owing to power not having been given to inspectors to enter the cabins or inspect the boats at any other time than “by day.” Boats are more or less on the move by day, and it is only when they are tied up—which generally happens after six o’clock—or when they are being loaded or unloaded, that the local registration officer has an opportunity to see or to form any idea as to what number of men, women, and children are sleeping and huddling together in the cabins. 7. The Act does not give the School Board officer power to enter a boat cabin. The education clauses of the Act have, I might almost say, entirely failed: (a) owing to the indifference manifested by the school authorities at which places the boats are registered as belonging to; (b) the extra trouble they give to the school attendance officers; (c) the facilities given and the chances seized by the boatmen to get outside the town or city boundaries with their children so as to elude the grasp or shun the eye of the School Board officer. 8. The payment of a week’s school fees demanded from the children who can only attend one or two days in the week. It is not either fair, honest, or just to compel a boatman to pay more for the education of his children than others have to pay. 9. Many boats in the coal districts, with women and children on board, travelling short distances, have escaped registration and inspection under the plea that their boats are not used as dwellings. 10. Another very important reason advanced by the registration authorities why the boatmen and boatowners have not been prosecuted for breaches of the Act is that all the trouble and expense attending prosecutions have had to be borne by the local ratepayers, while the fines, in accordance with the Act of 1877, have been paid over to the county fund, instead of the borough or local fund.
The Bill I am humbly promoting, and which has been before Parliament during the last two sessions, supported by Lord Aberdare, Earl Stanhope, Earl Shaftesbury, the Marquis of Tweeddale, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Mr. Albert Pell, M.P., Mr. John Corbett, M.P., Mr. Thos. Salt, M.P., Mr. Thos. Burt, M.P., and Mr. H. Broadhurst, M.P., provides a remedy for these faulty places. 1. I would do away with the permissive features of the Act of 1872. 2. Fines to be inflicted for breaches of the regulations, as well as for breaches of the Act. 3. I give under the Act the local registration authorities part of the registration fees. I propose that the annual registration fee should be 5s. for each boat, one half of this amount to go to the Government, and the other half to the local authorities. 4. The registration of the boats to be annual. This will be a very simple and inexpensive affair, no matter in what registration district the boat happens to be at the time of the renewal. 5. I give under the Bill the Local Government Board power to appoint one, two, or more officials to visit the canals in various parts of the country, and to see to the proper enforcement of the Act, and to report annually to Parliament. 6. I propose that the inspectors should have power to enter a canal boat at any “reasonable hour.” 7. No child shall be employed on a canal boat unless such child shall have passed the “third standard.” 8. I propose that children, whom the regulations allow to live in the cabins, should have a free educational pass book, which would enable them to attend any day school while the boats are being loaded and unloaded. 9. No child under the age of sixteen to work on a canal boat on Sundays. 10. All boats upon which there is accommodation for cooking or sleeping to be deemed to be used as dwellings. 11. All fines to be paid over to those authorities who enforce the Act.
When the Canal Boats Act of 1877 is amended in accordance with the lines I have laid down in the Bill, the stigma that has been resting upon the country and our canal population, numbering nearly 100,000 men, women, and children, during the last 125 years, will be in an easy way for removal, without inconvenience or costing the country one farthing, and the boatowners and captains not more than 2s. 6d. each per annum.
With the proper carrying out of the Act the 40,000 boat children of school age, not ten per cent. of whom can read and write, will be educated, and the boatmen’s homes made more healthy and happy; industrious habits will be encouraged, and the country will also be made richer by increasing the happiness of her water toilers upon our rivers and canals.
“Oh, help them, then, if ye are men,
And, when thy race is run,
Turn not aside, nor think with pride
Thy work in life is done.”Ellis, Quiver.
My papers passed off in the midst of smiles and kindly and lengthy press notices. Editors have always been more kind to me than I have deserved, much more than I had anticipated. The fact is, I had expected some rough handling, and armed myself with a few little rough, awkward facts. Perhaps it was fortunate for me that the majority of my hearers were of the gentler sex. Bless their dear hearts! Their encouraging smiles and words have helped me through many a difficulty in pushing on with the cause of the children. May God reward them a thousandfold.
The act was ended, and the curtain dropped. I therefore “picked up my crumbs,” and bade my friends goodbye till—D.V. and if all’s well—we meet again next year at Huddersfield. I then made my way to the station, and home. Upon Leicester platform I met with a few old friends, who had pleasant greetings for me, including Mr. Thompson, Mr. Fox, and a literary friend, the Rev. W. L. Lang, F.R.G.S., who has given myself and the cause I have in hand many lifts—bless him for it. Onward and upward may he travel to the time when it shall be said, “It is enough.” And to my many other friends who have helped me by their influence and with their pens, I repeat the same thing over and over again.
My little stock of the “one thing needful” had begun to turn quite modest, and crept into the corners of my pocket, so as to be scarcely felt among the keys of boxes, drawers, cupboards, and lockers, knives, and other pocket trifles. I took my ticket to Rugby, which left me with one shilling. I had not gone far before my ticket was missing out of my hand. I was in a minute “all of a stew.” Cold perspiration crept over me. In a twinkle, before any one could say “Jack Robinson,” my hands were at the bottom of my pockets using their force to persuade Mr. “Ticket” to turn up; but no! it was not to be found. Fortunately a porter came panting after me and asked if I had not lost my ticket. He had lifted a ton weight off my shoulders, and I thanked him very much. At Rugby I spent my last coin in copies of the Times, Standard, Daily News, Telegraph, Daily Chronicle, and Morning Post. In nearing our old antiquated village along the lovely green lanes, little village children were to be seen gathering blackberries. The sun was shining most beautifully in my face. The autumnal tints and hues were to be seen upon the trees. The gentle rustling wind brought the decaying and useless leaves hesitatingly and in a zigzag fashion to the ground, as if they were loath to leave the trees which had given them birth, before settling among the mud to be trampled upon by tramps and gipsies. While climbing the last hill, with a heavy heart and light pocket, weighed on all sides with nervous hope, trembling doubts, and anxious fears, I never more fully realized the force of John Wesley’s hymn, as I tried to hum it over. In soft but faltering accents I might have been heard by the village children singing—
“No foot of land do I possess,
No cottage in this wilderness.
A poor wayfaring man,
I lodge awhile in tents below,
Or gladly wander to and fro,
Till I my Canaan gain.”
The first thing that caught my eye upon my library table was a letter from Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., in which was enclosed a cheque to aid in building a Good Templar hall at Northampton, about which I had written. This was duly sent to Mr. Hollowell, the secretary. Underneath Mr. Morley’s letter lay one from a friend, Mr. Frank A. Bevan, of 54, Lombard Street, enclosing a small cheque on behalf of himself, Lord Aberdare, and a number of friends, to help me in my work, and to provide for the daily wants of my little ones, till we arrived at the next stile on our rough, steep, and somewhat zigzag journey. The sight of his cheque sent a thrill of joy through my soul, and I could not help shouting out, “Thanks! a thousand times.”