PLAN ABANDONED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 9

PLAN ABANDONED.

BOYS FOR THE LAND.

SAVINGS BANK'S v DECISION.

ACTIVITIES AT ST. JOHN'S. A letter received from the Auckland Savings Bank at a meeting of the Auckland Boys' Employment Committee yesterday afternoon stated that the trustees had. definitely decided to abandon, for the present at least, their original scheme for acquiring land and training and settling boys upon it. This decision had been come to as a result of the poor response from boys to the trustees' applications.

A committeeman explained that the bank's proposal had been to train a, number of boys as farm cadets, but that the cost of training and settling each lad would be ever £000, for which sum a whole family could be established on the land.

So that the trustees might be in closer touch with the work of the committee, it was decided to invite them to appoint a representative to the executive. It was announced by the trustees last August that they proposed, subject to the necessary legislative sanction, to make available £2000 towards the acquisition of a suitable block of land aiid to expend on the scheme during, say, five years, a sum not exceeding £20,000 for the development of the land and the settlement of suitable boys on it. Work at St. John's College. In a report on the work done in training 'boys for farms on the St. John's College estate, Tamaki, presented to the committee, it was stated •that for the 17 weeks which ended on December 31, the daily average attendance of boys at the camp was 13. The average time each remained was 104 days. The number of hoys who joined up was 82;' placed in the country, 46; left, voluntarily or otherwise, 2(i; on roll at end of year, 10; average age 10. During this period a large amount of work was done, the boys having cut 17 acres of standing gorse, cut and grubbed 10 acres of scattered gorse and blackberry, cultivated intensely two acres in farm and garden crops, and partly cultivated four acres. They cut 170 posts and 120 droppers, and the total sum paid to them in wages was £58, of which the college trustees found £42 and the committee £16.

For the most part the boys worked willingly and well, but most of the work was far from interesting, although it was effective in giving them some idea of what to expect on the farm where they were sent. The matter of giving the boys some instruction in milking would he gone into. It was reported that during the past week 34 boys registered at the bureau for country work, and 21 for the town. Of these numbers eight were placed in the country and 13 in town, 10 being available for country positions.