UNEMPLOYED ON LAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 244, 12 September 1933, Page 2

UNEMPLOYED ON LAND

VALUE OF BOYS’ TRAINING. While mentioning the value to the country, of Flock House in a speech to the members of the Palmerston North Itotary Club, yesterday, Mr F. J. Nathan said that it 'was a fallacy to say that the unemployed men should be put on the land. That sort of thing was said only by those who did not know anything about it. Flock House had been commenced eight years ago, said Mr Nathan. It had trained 763 English boys and girls and 50 New Zealand boys, giving them eight months’ training and securing them positions as apprentices on farms for three years. During the three years they were supervised and watched. Two-thirds of their wages were sent, to the Flock House authorities in the case of the English boys and half in the case of the New Zealand boys. From that had been built a fund of £45,000. Some 23 boys had been assisted to take up their own farms, being given a subsidy of 15s in the £. There was a wonderful lesson to be Learned from Flock House. It gave the boys training, put them where they would be happy and watched them and then set them up on their own.

One could not make a farmer out of a grown man, said Mr Nathan. Only people who did not know about farming suggested things like that, he continued. It was necessary to have a greater amount of knowledge to run a farm sensibly than it was to run a small store or shop. The idea of putting unemployed men on the land was a fallacy, he declared. But it was different with boys and what more sensible way could be used than training them at Flock House? he asked.