Youthful commentary on a growth economy : soundings from New Zealand 1884-1914

Research Framework  : Over the thirty years before World War I, expansion of theworld economy occasioned new opportunities and new constraints for childrenand adolescents as well as adults; but experiences and responses of minorsare understated in print sources.Objectives  : To discoverwhat societal changes young people noticed and talked about, we examined the« children's page » of a weekly newspaper available for a rural setting in theSouth Island of New Zealand. The perspective of youth is essential to interprettrajectories inferred from the more conventional sources available in a NorthAmerican urban setting (Montreal, Quebec). Methodology  : From theinternet archive PapersPast we collected 12,000 letters of young people aged sixthrough nineteen years, 1886-1909, and extracted their comments on two populartopics : the work they reported (paid or unpaid) and their accounts oftoothache. Results  : The lettersinform us about tasks of young people by age, gender, season, daily routine andhousehold structure. Changes in work assignments at ages 12 to 14, coincidentwith a spurt of growth and, for most, the end of formal schooling, evokeddiscussion among them about gender roles and, among girls, protest of thescheduling of their growing up. Conclusion  : Theseasonality of tasks assigned to children still in school indicates anunrecognized contribution to the elasticity of the rural economy on a globalfrontier of the industrial food supply. Reallocation of the labour of youngpeople was an ongoing process, subject to negotiation. Contribution  : The wealthof information and opinion accessed in the letters invites further experimentwith newspaper content analysis for recognizing the participation of segments ofthe population whose contributions to economic growth have beenunderestimated.