DRIFT FROM LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 21

DRIFT FROM LAND.

WORLD-WIDE TREND. PREJUDICES OF PARENTS. SEVERE LESSON LIKELY. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, Tuesday. That the world would face a flight from land, and that the world's peoples would experience a very severe lesson before there was a general swing back to agriculture, was prophesied by Captain F. H. Billington, former manager of the Flock House estate, near Bulls, who has just returned to New Zealand after an extensive tour overseas. While abroad he made exhaustive inquiries into agricultural conditions prevailing in British and foreign countries. Captain Billington made a special point of investigating the Fordson cooperative farming scheme in England, and he studied the possibilities of a similar scheme being introduced into New Zealand during the depression years in the Dominion.

Captain Billington was closely connected with efforts to place youths on farms, and at the outset of an interview he emphasised the prejudices of parents against sending their boys away irom cities to work in the country. Of course, he said, parents could not really be blamed because the conditions of work were not particularly attractive, and there was little hope of advancement for the boys. Parents did not wish to see their sons remain farm labourers for the remainder of their lives, and in that lay the greatest barrier to encouraging members of the younger generation to take up farming as a career. "Naturally this was one of the first things I looked for in oversea* countries," said Captain Billington, "but in Australia, Canada, Europe and Great Britain I found that the same prejudice existed. There was increasing perturbation among those connected with primary industry at the drift, or rather flight from the land. In England alone last year 40.000 farm workers left farms to seek other forms of employment."

The first essential for reviving interest in land was to improve the lot of the farm worker, with remuneration more or lese comparable with that of the urban worker for a given amount of effort, and that he should enjoy somewhat similar conditions at least in way of amenities, such as housing and recreation. It was noticeable that a sense of fighting a losing battle against circumstances over which they had 110 control was rapidly killing that priceless asset of successful farming, namely love of the land. Tndeed. it was often being replaced by a sense of grievance and penance under which no one could be exacted to do his best.

Division of Profits. Captain Billington expressed the opinion that one solution of the problem so far as the Dominion was concerned, might be the introduction of what was known as the Fordson farm settlement scheme. This had been originated by Mr. Henry Ford, and after being sue cessfully initiated in the United States it was introduced into England with very satisfactory results. Tn brief, the scheme consisted of dividing among farm workers all nett profits, a division being made pro rata to each man's wages. In England men working under the Fordson scheme had averaged 2-> per cent more than the statutory minimum wage for the country. Captain Billington quoted figures to show the excellent returns obtained under the scheme, and pointed out that, if it could be successfully modified to suit English conditions a* had been done, there was no reason why it should not be similarly modified to New Zealand conditions.

"The best recommendation of the scheme probably is the fact that practically the whole of the people in settlement. now some 170 in number, appear highly satisfied and contented." remarked Captain Billington. "Many who had previously been smallholders were cmph-itie that the scheme was the best, move towards agricultural reform that had been introduced in Britain. The men themselves had a method of dealing with drones, while those who. through physical disability could not do as much as the physically fit men, were paid according to what they were capable of doing."