OPPORTUNITIES ON FARM

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 22

OPPORTUNITIES ON FARM

"NEW ZEALAND BOYS FIRST-"

IMMIGRATION OPPOSED.

FLOCK HOUSE EXCEPTED.

A strong protest was made in a letter received by the Wellington School Committees' Association against the action of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, in urging the Prime Minister to remove the ban on the immigration of English schoolboys.

"It certainly seems to me," said Mr. W. Gibb, president of the South Island Federation, "that it is quite unnecessary just now to import labour into New Zealand, and the attitude of the Hon. H. Atmore, Minister of Education, in urging that our education system should be given an 'agricultural bias/ together with the fact that the secretary of the Labour Department has been touring the Dominion propounding a scheme for placing New Zealand boys on the land and urging the necessity of getting the people back to the land, shows clearly that our own people should be considered first."

The chairman, Mr. L. Hennessey, said the immigration scheme was entirely suspended by the late Government, and it had not been reopened by the present Government. The Taranaki chamber asked for the relaxation in favour of English schoolboys.

One delegate remarked that many boys were brought out by the Salvation Army and placed on the land.

Mr. W. H. Sadd said lie would like to see the Salvation Army taking as much interest in New Zealand boys and enabling them to become "cookies." In England the Salvation Army sent boys to the Hadleigh Farm Colony (Essex), where they gained a smattering of farming; Then the boys came to New Zealand and were disappointed. There were hundreds of New Zealand boys who would be pleased to have the same opportunity. " Reduced to Eating Turnips."

Mr. D. Slater mentioned an instance of a boy who came to New Zealand and went on a sheep' station in the Wairarapa. He was a fine boy, capable and enthusiastic, but the farmer had to reduce his hands. Lots were drawn, and the boy lost, so he left the place and started walking the countryside looking for work. He was so short of food that he was reduced to eating turnips, when a friend of the speaker's took pity on him and found him a job in return for his food and clothing until he could find a place. The organisation which brought boys to New Zealand should keep in touch with them, and if they left one farm should look after them until they got other work. Mr. Sadd said he did not suggest that the Salvation Army did not look after their boys. Mr. G. H. Tanner urged that the same opportunity should be given to New Zealand boys to go on the land under closer settlement. Many who did not succeed in the city would do well on the land, and New Zealand boys should have first choice.

" Let Them Come." "We are introducing a political subject which is entirely outside our province," said Mr. J. R. Burnley, who contended that there were plenty of farmers willing to take boys if they were willing to go. This country had plenty of scope for such boys as were brought to New Zealand, lads of the right type, and he said "Throw our doors open to them and let them come. They will be good citizens in the future, and I have every confidence they will continue to make good as they have done in the past." (Applause.) • Mr. C. Binnoch agread that farmers had difficulty in obtaining boys of the right sort, and if New Zealand boys would not go on the land they should let the others do it.

Another delegate said there were not so many opportunities on the land. a 6 they were led to believe, but if there was any money to be spent in getting boys on the land let them spend it on New Zealand boys first. The chief difficulty was that farmers could not afford to pay boys because they were paying too much in interest bills. Boys could go on the farms, but how long would they-have to work before becoming successful farmers themselves? It would be a lifetime before they could buy a farm, even a small one, in New Zealand, with land at the present prices. ' The following motion was carried: "That in view of the amount of unemployment of boys in the Dominion, the A Wellington School Committees' Association urges on the Government not to accede to the request to lift the ban on the immigration of schoolboys, and to endeavour to place New Zealand boys who have just left school on, the land, so as to endorse the ideal of the Hon. Minister of Education that the education system should have an agricultural bias. This is not to apply to the reception of boys under the Flock House scheme."