Mexborough & Swinton Times — February 10, 1882
Miners’ Apprentices
The Visiting Committee recommended that Benjamin Scholey and James Tarpey be allowed to leave the works and go to Alfred Hobson, coal miner, of Denaby, as apprentices.
The Chairman said he recommended apprenticeship boys as miners.
Mr. Warburton: There are some in Doncaster and lots of other places.
Mr. Furnival: Is it usual for youths in the ordinary way to be bound.
Mr. Warburton: I think it is.
Mr. J. F. Clark: Is this man a working miner himself?
Mr. Warburton: Yes, he is.
Alderman Hatfield: The only question will be the ability of the master.
Mr. Furnival: Suppose these boys were to run away before they were 20 could they imprison them?
The Chairman: I suppose so, the same as ordinary apprentices.
Mr. Makin said it was an honest trade and he did not see why the boys should not be allowed to go.
The Chairman remarked that it was not healthy to put children under the surface of the earth for so long a time.—Mr. Warburton said this was a mistaken idea. Coal mining was not an unhealthy occupation.
From statistics it was found that farmers lost more lives than miners, and there were more persons killed in the fields by horses, in the district of London, and inquests held on them than there were in coal mines.
Mr. Wainwright thought the lads ought to go and see if they liked it.
The Chairman said it was recommended that the boys go on trial, and if they did not like it they could come back.
The boys were called into the room, and in reply to the Chairman both said they were 14 years of age; one had passed the third and the other the fourth standard at school, and they were willing and wanted to go to work. The parents of one of the lads had deserted him, and the other was an orphan.
The recommendation of the committee was confirmed.