BOYS FOR FARMS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 142, 12 December 1935, Page 10

BOYS FOR FARMS

"SOMETHING IS .WRONG"

NO RESPONSE TO DEMAND

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.") NEW PLYMOUTH, This Day. A record year for the number of j boys leaving the school for employ}ment was reported by the principal of j the New Plymouth Boys' High School! (Mr. W. H. Moyes) at the breaking-up ceremony last night. One hundred and four boys had found employment irom the school during the year, but not one had gone on a farm. He expressed concern at this anomaly, and suggested several ways by which farming might be made more attractive and lucrative.

The demand for boys indicated improved economic conditions, said Mr. Moyes, and it was certainly a great relief to those controlling the school.

In a country dependent to such an extent on the products of the land the avoidance of land occupations indicated that something was radically wrong with the system. Eighty applications for farm assistants had been received but in not one case was a boy available. Work on a farm had no attraction for the average boy.

i "I believe," said Mr. Moyes, "that if some system could be inaugurated whereby a boy could look for financial assistance when he had gained experience, giving some certainty of eventually being established on a small farm of his own, there would be an immediate response to the demand for farm labour. The first move should be in the direction of a fixed standard of wages, with annual increases for efficient boys. A scheme might be introduced by which portion of the wages could be put aside each week and at the end of the apprenticeship could be subsidised by the Government.

"If in addition to this State loans, repayable over a long period, were made available, boys could look forward to establishing themselves on the land and would welcome the opportunity of engaging in an occupation which appeals to many of them."