The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1932. BOYS ON THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 304, 23 December 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1932. BOYS ON THE LAND.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

In spite of every effort to find employment for boys there is still a total of 3044 on tlie unemployed roll, and this is likely to be further increased by the large number who have just left school. In their able report on the matter, Messrs. Smith and Ansell describe it as the most acute human problem with which this generation has been called upon to deal. There is only a slender chance of these boys being absorbed in commerce and industry, and it is to the land that the framers of the report look as offering the best field. It is noteworthy that of 2850 boys placed in employment, 1172 have been put on farms.

They have outlined as their main plan for putting boys on the land a scheme for developing unproductive Crown land and ultimately enabling suitable boys to become established as farmers. There is plenty of good material available, and it should be noted that the compilers of the report find that city boys are quick to learn farm work. The report recommends a combination of education and special settlement. Boys who have had some technical training in agriculture, or have worked on a farm, would be set to develop Crown land at a minimum wage, and eventually would be settled on this land on small economic sections. The objection to this scheme is that there are fewer areas of Crown land suitable for settlement than is generally supposed, and many of them are of poor quality or remote. There is, however, a good deal to be said for this scheme, and it is certainly worthy of fuller consideration. Much would depend upon organisation. The reluctance of parents to send boys out into the "wilds" could be overcome by showing that the young workers would be provided with good living conditions and that eventually there would be land for them to work for their own benefit. The other remedy, the placing of boys on established farms, must be applied also. The framers of the report recognise that farms must be carefully selected. The farmer who simply wants cheap labour, and has no sense of responsibility for the boy, must be avoided. Every case of exploitation that gets known does harm. Here local co-operation is necessary. Some organisation is wanted to keep an eye on the boy while he is on the farm and to help him when he starts out for himself. This co-operation, however, is only part of the help that is cxpected from the public. It is a feature of the report that Messrs. Smith and Ansell emphasise that this is not wholly a matter for the Government, but is a task for local organisations and individual citizens. All over the country there should be committees finding work for boys and looking after their education and recreation. The evil of unemployment among boys is not to be mitigated by lamentations or appeals to the Government, but by local and individual effort.