TRAINING COURSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 9

TRAINING COURSE.

AT RUAKURA STATE FARM.

BOYS FROM THE PROVINCE.

Under the auspices of the Auckland Boys' Employment Committee, 40 boys from all parts of the Auckland province will leave to-day to attend a course of training at the Ruakura State Farm. The classes will conclude on June 19, when a second group of 22 boys, who were members of the party who' took the course last year, will attend a short refresher course. Apart from those already mentioned, another group is being arranged by the Department of Agriculture, who propose to send between 30 and 40 boys to the farm for training. From those who went to the training farm to-day it is hoped to select 27 or 28 boys to start under the scheme of the Auckland Youths' Farm Settlement Board.

This settlement scheme is producing pleasing results. The idea is that boys take up selected positions on farms, and for five years their progress and conduct are noted. Each year a refresher course is attended at Ruakura, and at least one-fifth of their income is paid into a savings bank account. The deposits must be made regularly and at periods not further apart than a month. At the end of the five years the Government will provide a subsidy of about £200, and this, together with the trainees' personal savings, should provide sufficient capital to allow him to take up farming on his own account.

The improved wages on farms, however, are enabling many boys to save a good deal more than 20 per cent of their wages, There are certain stipulations as to physical fitness and education up to an agreed standard, and where bovs have had previous farm experience they can be credited with not more than one year on account of the five years' course.