YOUNG WOMEN ENROL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 154, 2 July 1945, Page 3

YOUNG WOMEN ENROL

"DRIFT TO COUNTRY"

HERD-RECORDING WORK

That there may be a drift to the countrv, as distinct from the oftlamented drift to the towns, on the part of young women is indicated by the number of townswomen who are enrolling to qualify as herd-recorders this year. Townswomen so far enrolled for the 10-days' .course at Massey College, prior to their being appointed to districts by the NewZealand Herd Improvement Association represent about 75 per cent of the total enrolments.

The splendid part which young women had played in keeping up the numbers required for seasonal herdrecording work during the last five years was remarked upon by Miss Dorothea Silson, of Wellington, honorary secretary of the Women's Herd Testers' Reserve in an interview.

Of the 296 persons who underwent the fortnight's training at Massey College during that five-year period, she said, about 220 were women. The satisfactory reports received from dairy farmers whose herds were tested, showed plainly that women's part in primary production, as in war, could become an increasingly important one. The new enrolments coming forward for this year's short course of tuition, to be followed by district appointments, indicated that women were still conscious of the necessity for keeping the ranks of herd-record-ers strong numerically until the men serving in the armed forces could again have their choice of civil occupation.