FLOCK HOUSE SCHEME

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 228, 26 August 1932, Page 6

FLOCK HOUSE SCHEME

TRAINING OF NEW ZEALAND BOYS APTITUDE AND KEENESS. With the benefit of eight months’ training at Flock House, near Bulls, the first party of New' Zealand uoys to go tlirougn the institution will fie roauy to go out to employment in January next. They will make room for others who will uo waiting anu ready to take their place. The work of block House is not finished. Hundreds of sons of British seamen have fieen trained at tho farm station for tho land, and now it is receiving the sons ol New Zealand soldiers. Within a few days the last of the English boys in training will go out to tarnA. There are ten or these fioys at present at Flock House, and six will lie retained there as working apprentices. Tho position regarding Now Zealand boys is that 34 are in residence. They have come from various centres of the Dominion as follow: —Wellington three, Dunedin nine, Christchurch seven, Napier three, Gisborne two, Timaru three, Wanganui, Hawera, Levin, Marton, Foxton, Bulls and Palmerston North one each. Arrangements have been made to receive another batch of approved boys, which will bring the total number of New Zealand trainees to 51. This draft will comprise nine from Auckland, five from Wellington, and one each from Nelson, Hawera, and Masterton. Another nino arrivals subsequently expected will bring the total to GO.

Six of the 51 boys who will shortly bo in training are complete orphans, 21 lost their fathers in the War, and the fathers of the remainder are incapacitated through war injuries. Ton are sons of soldiers who fell with the main body of the N.Z.E.F. Tho ages of the boys range from 15 to 19 years, and fully half of them have been drawn from secondary schools. The remainder have come direct from the primary schools after securing their proficiency. They are stated to bo a fine lot of wellbuilt boys, who are showing aptitude and keenness for farming, and like it. While it is considered to be too early yet to draw comparisons, it is reported that they have settled down quickly and show much initiative.

Meanwhile, the Flock House organisation is still maintaining contact with 740 English "boys and girls who have passed through its institution and are scattered throughout the Dominion.