STUDENT LABOUR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20619, 21 November 1941, Page 3

STUDENT LABOUR

VACATION FARM WORK COMING SEASON’S PLAN A scheme for the placement of schoolboys and university students in ordinary as well as purely seasonal farm jobs is being undertaken by the State Placement Service, and placement officers and secretaries of Government youth centres are already well ahead with the work of compiling a register of those available for farm work during the summer vacation. Farmers desiring schoolboys and university students during that period are asked to communicate with the State Placement Service.

Much more is hoped of the scheme this year than last. Information received by Mr. F. M. Ojala, instructor in agriculture in Gisborne, states that the scheme last year was late getting into stride, and although 754 schoolboys volunteered for holiday farm work farmers employed only 318 of them. Fifty of the boys were placed on sheep farms, 114 on dairy farms. (12 on mixed farms and .92 on properties where they were performing purely seasonal duties. Farmers who engaged boys for the Christmas vacation last year were generally warmly appreciative in their comments on the service given by the boys. This season the scheme is in hand much earlier and is also extended to embrace university students. The larger numbers available should help to compensate for the additional shortage of labour on farms, and if farmers will communicate with the nearest placement officer and state their needs the" scheme should be more effective than last year.