FLOCK HOUSE SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 65, 10 December 1930, Page 9

FLOCK HOUSE SCHEME

For N.Z.-born Children EXTENSION WANTED A proposal to have the Flock House scheme extended so as to be made available to New Zealand-born children received the strong support of the Wellington School Committees’ Association on Monday evening, when it passed a resolution urging the .Government to extend the scheme. with the object of encouraging “our own children to go on the land.’’ “This is a question that should be taken up and pressed very strongly,” said Mr. J. J. Clark, when the question came forward. “The Minister went to some trouble some time ago to initiate the agricultural bias in our education, and the question, too, is one that is being raised all over New Zealand —that boys of New Zealand birth should be available for the Flock House scheme. We would be well within our duty if we urged the Minister to try and bring the scheme into force.” The secretary, Mr. N. A. Ingram, stressed that such a scheme as this was particularly acceptable just now, when parents were faced with a great problem in finding work for their children after they left school. However, he thought it should not stop at the opportunity being given for training at Flock House. The Government should be prepared to recognise the necessity of.placing land ready for the use of the students who were trained at Flock House, so that the training given there might not be so much waste of time —as it would be if the students only came back on the employment market again. Several other speakers agreed that the scheme should be pressed most strongly, especially in view of the fact, that parents were facing an anxious time as far as the future of their children now at school was concerned. Finally, the meeting gave unanimous approval to a resolution presented by. the Kilbirnie School Committee, reading: "This committee views with deep concern the future of boys and girls leaving school and college at the end of the present school year, and in view of the depression existing in trades and professions, urges the Government through the Education Department to —if possible—extend the Flock House scheme to make it available to New Zealand-born children to take up the occupation of farming, with the object of epcouraging them to go on the land.”