THE LAND GIRL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 216, 12 September 1925, Page 8

THE LAND GIRL.

I Girls in the future are to receive some ■ of the benefits which have been extended j to the boys at Flock House. The trus- | tees of the fund provided as an acknowledgment to the British seamen by the shecpownere of New Zealand, have just j purchased a property near Palmerston i North which will be used for the train- | ing of the girls. The idea of the scheme is to select as far as possible the sisters . of the boys already chosen for training I at Flock House. The girls will be placed as mothers' helps, if possible, on the farms and stations where their brothers are apprenticed. When the brothers have finished their apprenticeship and start on their own account the sisters are to join them as partners and help in the housekeeping and the manao-e----ment of the farm. It is hoped that this apprenticeship as housekeepers to their brothers will help them in the future when they are called upon to manage the domestic affairs of someone el«e's brother. The two things are not quite the same, but they are sure to sjain an insight into the kind of work which awaits a settler's wife. We are told that the girls are to be given six months- training in domestic work, milking, gardening, beekeeping. poußrvlanmng, and other work such as land girls need to know. This will give them an idea of the miscellaneous and multifarious duties before them if they marry fanners. Xo class in the Dominion worKs as hard as the wives of many of our settlers, and their work often t>as«es unrecognised even in their own household. Many have taken it up after coming straight out from Home, and the courage and patience they have displayed have been beyond all praise. If these girls can be used in any way to lighten the lot of the mother in remote country places they will be welcomed. The experience they will gain cannot fail to be of service to them. No one would wieh to see them converted into farmhanda, and care will hare to be taken I

i to provide them with homes where ftuitl able provision exists for their aecommoi dation. If this is done there is no reason ' why the girls should not enjoy the freer ' life of the country and train themselves • to follow in the footsteps of the many i brave women who have faced hardship . and toil with cheerfulness in order to help their husbands in the building up of their country homesteads.