SATISFYING RESULTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 61, 14 March 1927, Page 10

SATISFYING RESULTS

Mr. P. S. Abraham, lion, secretary of the New Zealand Association of Public Schools of Great Britain, ivrites to the "New Zealand Herald" on the subject as follows:—I do not think Mr. Dalby is justified in forming his conclusions from the solitary case brought under his notice. My association recently made arrangements to visit the boys from the public and secondary schools of Great Britain brought out under the Government scheme and placed with farmers in different parts of the Dominion. Out of 152 names submitted to ub 61 haye been reported on by myself or members of our association. Of- these I have visited 32 myself. These boys have been placed on farms situated from the North of Auckland to the Bluff.

Out of the Cl boys actually reported on, 51 have expressed themselves as thoroughly contented and satisfied that they will make good, while the farmer in each case has expressed his appreciation of the good qualities of the boy, though they have found some of them green and slow to learn. Of the balance seven have applied for a change, which has been made or is under consideration: two are unsatisfactory and dissatisfied boys in good homes; one waster has cleared out. Some 40 of these boys are under the supervision of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, and the gentlemen connected with this body have been very careful in their selection of farmers. Apart from the inspection which has been going ou, the Under-Secretary for Immigration lias his arrangements with the boys, under which they write to him once a month, and I take it that he gives the same careful consideration to the boys' letters as he does to my own. There is therefore no reason whatever for any boy to be in. the position described by Mr. Dalby, unless through his own fault.

Generally speaking, I say that the boys are a fine lot, who will mostly make pood, and the farmers with whom they have been placed are a good lot on the whole, who are endeavouring to do their duty-to the boys. I think these boys will make splendid settlers, and as very many of them have expectations of some help from their parents when their termTof apprenticeship is over, I think the Government is doing the right thing bringing them out, and I hope that in this respect it will not alter its policy. There may be an occasional waster brought out, and a. boy may be placed with a hard, selfish farmer, but the few cases of failure which have come under my notice feave b^en tJie fault of the boys T-thanks to theif uninifal>ilitv: eS mdi*.