A Curious Application.

At a meeting of the Doncaster Board of Guardians on Saturday the Chairman said a man named Daniel Pearce, a collier, at Mexboro’, had applied to the Visiting Committee to have Thomas Booth and William Haigh, two boys who were at present in the Union, with him a month on trial to learn to be colliers. Mr. J. F. Clark said the man was before the Visiting Committee on Friday, and the impression that Pearce left on his mind was that he was at present out of work and he wanted the boys in order that he could get work, as some of the pits would not employ men unless they could bring lads with them.

The Chairman said they had once done that kind of thing and the man got out of work and then took the boy out of the Union. He thought they ought not to bind boys to learn their trade with men who were not in business on their own account, as the man might be turned off his work at any time. The Assistant Clerk: It is illegal.

At this point Pearce was called into the room and informed of the decision of the Board, and the Chairman added that they had once tried that kind of thing and it had failed most signally.