BOYS FOR FARMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 8

BOYS FOR FARMS.

Thank goodness something is being done at last to encourage New Zealand boys to go 6n the land. AVe have nothing to say against the admirable Flock HoUse system of training or the valuable scheme for putting English public schoolboys on farms, but it is ah anomaly that while all this has been done for boys from the Motherland there has been no organisation for settling young New Zealanders. The proposals contained in a report drawn up by the UnderSecretary of Labour and the secretary Of the Farmers' Union are therefore very welcome. Briefly, the idea is to draw lads from the cities by apprenticing them to farmers, and to encourage them to take up land on" their <jwn account later on. The Government is to be asked to give the group settlement idea a trial with these young farmers* The late Government had no liking for this idea, but the present Government should be more sympathetic. Of course, the details of this back to the land scheme will have to be carefully examined. Its success will depend partly OA the willingness of boys to leave the attractions of town, and partly on the way they are treated on the farms. If the farmer uses this apprenticeship system merely as an easy way Of getting cheap labour, then it will fail. There is, however, a statesmanlike originality and breadth about the scheme that makes it look Very promising, j