COUNTRY v. TOWN BOYS.

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 8

COUNTRY v. TOWN BOYS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I wish to mention a matter which at the present time is engaging the attentirjt of a few misguided individuals. I refer to the scheme of establishing cheap board for country youths coming to town to leain trades. Now, sir, this to my mind .is expending time and money where it is not required. Never in the historv of this colony were farmers in a better position than they axe at the present time. On the ether hand, the average working man in town can only exist. To live in comfort with household necessities at the present high prices is impossible, and to save a little is oat of the question. Poor little boys have to tutrn out of their beds at four o'clock these bitter winter mornings to rim milk and newspapers, in order to make a few shillings to make ends meet, while farmers are able on potatoes alone to turn over hundreds of pounds, and it is for the sens of these farmers that these good neonlc are trying to find cheap board. Why, I ask, iKiard the s'ns of well-to-do farmers for 10s and 12s, while boarding-house keepers find it impossible to board' men for less than 16s or 18s a week. If these good people are reallv looking for charitable work, they will find plenty for them to do in the City, where many of our boys—for instance, tbe eldest of a. large family of some working men—have on leaving school to find employment at whatever will bring in the most money. The father cannot afford to keep the lad while be leanrs a trade, and this boy.is thrown on the. world without a chance of learning a trade or anything whereby in after years he will be able to make a decent living. Those are the lx>ys, to my mind, who want helping.—l am, etc., Live and Lkt Live. August 6.