FARM BOYS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18547, 24 November 1925, Page 10

FARM BOYS.

YOUNG IMMIGRANTS DO WELL. SOME UNREASONABLE EMPLOYERS. (SPECIAL TO ''THE TRESS.".I GISBORNE, November 23. The general condemnation ot* the boys who have come to this district under the junior immigration sehcjne, made by some members of the Farmers' Union recently, is not shared by the majority of the farmers to whom these boys have cone. Several farmers who have boys in their employ express indignation at the remarks made at the meeting. There arc now forty boys in Poverty Bay who have come out under this scheme, and of this number, r it is stated, O'.sly two have proved failures. Both these boys have been sent back.' to England. Several farmers have declared how well they are satisfied with the boys, and have expressed surprise that there has been dissatisfaction. One farmer said that he was convinced that the cause of at least some of the alleged failures lay not with the boys but with their employers. He knew of a boy who had been sent to a farmer well known as a "niggerdriver," and this lad, on being transferred to another plaj-e, had proved entirely satisfactory. One of the boys who was condemned at the meeting, although he had been "useless" according to the member, had proved one of the best boys another farmer had ever had. Farmers who have made honest endeavours to teach the boys their work, and who have treated them with kindness and consideration, have found the boys extremely responsive. On the whole the scheme is working satisfactorily. There are cases where boys are getting as much as £2 per week, and where the farmers are so satisfied that they have applied for another boy.