The Hawera Star. TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 29, 1927. THE SUCCESS OF FLOCK HOUSE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 November 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 29, 1927. THE SUCCESS OF FLOCK HOUSE.

Delivered every evening, by 5 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville. Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohnngat, Meremere. Fraser Road and Aiarata

When the trustees of the Now Zealand Shoepfarmcrs Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund were reviewing the operations of the Flock House scheme at their annual meeting last week they by no means overstated the position when they claimed that the scheme was now past the experimental stage and must be considered a success This modest- claim was well in keeping with the attitude shown by the trustees throughout the term of their voluntary duties. It is largely due to the quiet way in which all concerned have gone about their work that comparatively little is- heard in New Zealand about the two settlements established in the Manawatu district for the training of

the sons and daughters of British seamen -who lost their lives or were incapacitated while serving the Empire at sea during the Great War. of course, is a virtue just as much in tho case of those who concern themselves with good works as in any other sphere, and it is gratifying that the sheepfarmers have been able to pay part of their debt to the men who kept the 'sea routes open to their produce during the war without beating the ibig drum and resorting to spectacular methods of any kind. But it is good for our own self-respect that we should occasionally 'be informed what this country is doing, in a purely voluntary way, for the children of British seamen who otherwise would have had to take their chance in the overcrowded occupations of England. Tho New Zealand public is aware, more or less vaguely, that two farm training settlements have been established, one for girls and one for boy.s, but only a comparative few know that these two houses have been in existence for seven years and that during that time 400 b'oys apd girls have been brought out to the Dominion. Of that number, 314 have passed through their training period and settled on farms. This is a record of which any Institution might be proud, but it is by no means the whole story. Of those 314 girls and youths who have taken up rural work, not one has drifted to the towns. That is the outstanding point in a lino record. Apart from this immigration work, the trustees make grants to the relatives of sailors who have succumbed to w r ar injuries—an activity which the general public has possibly forgotten-—and in this direction alone the sum of £54,000 has been expended during the last seven years. With the Eloek House now r well past the experimental stage, the controlling authorities have every right to consider that they have something to teach the Government in the matter of immigration. The remark of the chairman of trustees, the Hon. E. Newman, that if the Government wished to make a success of immigration it would have to follow the Flock House system and train the boys at this end, is worthy of more than passing consideration, by the British Government no less than by the New Zealand Government. In England the Salvation Army has established a training farm for prospective immigrants, and that scheme, and others established by religious and semi-public bodies, are now receiving an increasing measure of support from the Home Government. The suggestion w r as made by Mr Amery during his visit to both houses this week that perhaps the Home Government would consider extending the financial assistance granted by the fund to trainees after they have left the farms. Under this system, trainees who have saved from £250 to £3OO in the five or six years following the completion of their term of training, are to be subsidised by the sheepfarmers’ fund to the extent of 15s in the £ to enable them to obtain holdings of their own. Mr Amery said that that was one of the best sporting offers in the -world, and he promised to go into the question of further loans being made to these young men and women by the Imperial Government. Flock House, with its splendid record of one hundred per cent, of successes in selecting and training the right type of immigrant—the young immigrant who is prepared to make the Dominion his future country and to stay on the land—has provided an example worthy of the closest study on the part of those who realise that the importance of immigration to the whole Empire will grow with the years.