The Brussels Post, 1981-01-14, Page 12MI"
Stippott your
local service clubs
Proceeds Minor Sports)
12 — THE BRUSSELS POST, JANUARY 14, 1981
The Home: Canada's child immigrants
BY:\EVELYN KENNEDY
Did you know that one. of the most
dramatic schemes in the history of
immigration to Canada brought more than
80,000 children here from the poor
neighbourhoods of Britain's cities of
London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Man-
ehester? It began in 1869 and continued
until 1914 when World War I interrupted
the program.
Many of these children were little more
than infants, as young as four and five
years of age. Most of them were placed on
farms in Ontario an Manitoba, some in
the Maritimes and Quebec. Chiildren too
young to work were adopted. into families
but most were expected to spend the years
of childhood working in the fields or
tending cattle in an indenture that was
stern and lonely.
The child immigration was begun in 1869
by a woman. The children were taken from
a life of poverty, disease and crime in the
squalid slums of the east end of London.
This woman had an answer for people of
Britain who fealred for the welfare of the
children in Canada. "Can anything I
introduce them to in Canada be worse than
that to which they are doomed if we leave
them where they are now?"
The following year another woman also
brought children to Canada and esta,
blished a Canadian "Distributing" home
in Ontario. In 1877 her sister opened a
second home in Quebec.
It was however a medical student,
Thomas Barnardo and the organization he
founded, that sent 30,000 children to
Canada. Appalled by the hordes of
homeless children in London he gave up
medicine to become a full-time child
worker. Hundreds of children arrived in
Canada every spring, summer and fall, at
the Barnardo Homes in Toronto, Peterbor-'
ough and Winnipeg and at a training farm
in Manitoba.
Whenever Barnado came to Canada he
saw as many as possible of the children he
had sent. A great many of them would be
gathered together at some point to see
him. After he would set out alone by horse
and buggy on a dusty road, calling at farms
to visit as many others as he could. These
children, many lonely and heartbroken,
had never known a real father. A visit from.
Barnardo was the most memorable event
of 'their lives.
What many of those children would
remember all their lives was the Work,
long, hard, and unrewarding. A bright
nine-year-old girl was sent to a farm in
Nova. Scotia. Within a few days of arriving
there she was, though only nine, carrying
sacks of potatoes to the cellar, picking
boulders from fields, carrying water to the
house and barn and wielding a bucksaw in
a vain attempt to cut wood. She rose before
everyone else and retired after them.
When she was 18, facing another winter
without warm clothes, she asked the Home
to be removed. She was. Others were
mistreated, beaten severely, when coming
from the city, knowing nothing about the
farm, they did not learn quickly enough to
please the farmers they were placed with.
Some of the children were lucky. They
found themselves in contact with kindly
people who gave them hope for the future.
These were those who went on to bright
carders and happy times. One, a child
emigrant from Britain, John R. Seeley,
who many believe to be the most brilliant
sociologi st Canada has yet produced,,
became in time the head of sociology at'
York University, Toronto. He is today
associate-dean at a private college in Los
Angeles. He was a recent guest on the
C.B.C. program. "Front Page Challenge."
Like others he will never forget the
loneliness and hardships of those early
years in. Canada.
The information for the above article was
taken from Kenneth Bagnell's story
"Canada's Child Immigrants" that ap-
peared in The Review.
Weedless
Wednesday
coming
January 21
Huron and Perth health
agencies are co-operating
this year to sponsor National
Non-Smoking Week, January
18 to 24. The week's high-
light is Weedless Wednes-
day, January 21 when
smokers all over the country
are being asked to give up
the habit, for a day at least.
Huron County and Perth
District health units are mak-
ing the area' schools aware
of the benefits of quitting or
not, starting to smoke and the
week's, theme is "Join the
Majority- Bea Non::SMplier!'
gAcctertlitik to US liebIth
studies non-sniokersi','::“;bow
make up two-thirds of the US
population, And up tO 70'-per'
cent of • a -group' , of
smokers suffer eye irritation:
as headache,!%cough
and sore throat after, expos-
ure t(, a SuStained dose Of
someone else's smoke.
Evelyn Scott of the Ontario
Heart Foundation's Perth
County chapter adds that
studies have shown respira-
'ory illnesses are more cotn-
, -non among children whose
mrents smoke compared
with those who have non-
smoking parents. As well,
carbon monoxide levels in
poorly ventilated smoke-
filled rooms have sometimes
exceeded levels considered
safe in industry.
"The Moral of the story I
guess, is that we should
'mind very much that they
smoke.' Smokers are not only
doi :ng themselves a faVour
by quitting," Mrs. Scott
says.
Members of the • intera-
gency committee for non.,
smoking week in this area
are the two county health
units, the Heart. Foundation,
the Huron Perth Lung Asso-
CiatiOn, and the Huron and
Perth branches of the Cana-
dial' Cancer Society.
A- Post Classified will pay
you .divictood.. Have you
tried one? Dial Brussels
887-6641.
Seaforth Optimist
14th Annual
WINTER CARNIVAL
HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
Fri., Jan. 23, Sat., Jan.24, Sun., Jan.25
FRIDAY, JAN. 23
6:30 P.M.-HOCKEY TOURNAMENT 16 Teams' at Seaforth Arena
8:00 P.M.-CARNIVAL FUN NIGHT Arena Hall
-Disc jockey -Games -Euchre -Crokinole -Games of chance
Bring the family to see the hockey and warm up upstairs
Lunch 11:00 p.m. Advance tickets inc. lunch upstairs $1.00,
at the door $1.50, kids free.
SATURDAY,JAR,
9:00 A.M.-SNOW SCULPTURING Optimist Park Prizes - LUnch Booth Open
9:00 A.M.-HOCKEY TOURNAMENT CONTINUES1 IeEsA
1:00 P.M.-4x4,.WHEEL DRIVE POKER RALLY Or7tirlu a
t
itP:rka
3:15 PAL-HOCKEY SEMI FiNALS START (TILL 10:00 P.M.)s p:r:ri:
9:00 P.M.-CARNIVAL HARD TIME DANCE Arena Hail
Music-Free Spirit-LCBO-Advance Tickets $ 3.00
Tickets at Door $3.50 Available from Members
SUNDAY, JAN. 25
10:00. A.M.-Hockey Tournament Semi Finals Seaforth Arena
12:00 P.M.-Snowmobile Poker Rally Optimist Park
3:00 P.M.-Hockey Championship B Division
4:15 P.M.-Hockey Championship A Division
HOCKEY TEAMS SCHEDULE •
Fd. 6:30 - Strathroy vs Milverton
745 - Ooderich vs London
9 p.m. Mitchell vs Blyth
Sat. 9 a.M. Seaforth vs Exeter
10:15 a.m. - Mt: Forrest vs Belmont
11:30 JIM. New Market vs Windsor
12:45 p.m. Kincardine vs Erindale K.
2:00 p.M. Erindaie G VS Millington
3:15 9 p.m. • Semi-Finals CARNIVAL CO-ORDINATORS,
Si.m 10 a.m. Semt-Finala
Bill Whyte. 527,1801
ChimpionslOp 11 at 3:00 p.m.
Ken Catirhie.5214610
Chanipiemildiw A at 4:15 pan. Kett Coleman 5274398 •
• 5214120'