CIVIC CLUB.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 304, 21 November 1934, Page 4

CIVIC CLUB.

ADDRESS BY MR T. R. LEES

An address on some aspects of land settlement in New Zealand, with particular reference to juvenile immigration for the provision of country workers, was given by Mr T. It. Lees, of

Palmerston North, to the Feilding Civic Club, yesterday, Mr C. M. Sargisson being in the chair. Mr Lees is prominently associated with the development of the Flock House scheme. Aftei dealing with statistical figures relating to permanent departures from and the falling birth rate in New Zealand, Mr Lees said the Dominion could support a far greater population than it had to-day, for thousands of acres of land still remained undeveloped. Being dependent for its prosperity on its primary industries, the need was for a continuous How of boys who were willing to take employment in the country and as it had been shown that there were not sufficient New Zealand boys to meet the requirements, Mr Lees considered the difficulty could be met by the emigration to this country of the type of persons wanted. This could Le done without flooding the labour market and accentuating the unemployment position, and in his opinion the best type -of worker to bring into New Zealand would be juveniles. He instanced the success that had already been made in New Zealand with juvenile migrants, and stated that the value of what he suggested was already widely recognised in the Old Country. Organised juvenile emigration would help to supply the persistent demand for young farm workers arid, besides, would offer to young boys and girls the chance to lead a healthy and useful life Iree from the demoralising effects of unemployment.

Mr Lees went on to detail organised emigration schemes that had already taken place under the auspices of philanthropic and other interested bodies and persons, dealing among others with those sponsored by the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, the New Zealand Association of Public Schools of Great Britain, the Salvation Army; the Church of England, and Flock House. All these organisations, he said, had been responsible for the introduction into New Zealand of a fine class of young country worker, Flock House alone having brought 763 boys and girls into New Zealand under the auspices of its system before migration ceased. 'When migration was renewed, as he thought it soon must be, the speaker added, the country should be ; careful to see that the mistakes made in some schemes in the past were not repeated. It was not sufficient to bring boys into the country and place them untrained on the labour market, for few farmers had the time to train an. entirely inexperienced lad, while the boy himself soon became disheartened and left the land as a source of employment. It was necessary to give the boys a period of training in the fundamentals of farm work, and make them worth such wages as would be reasonable and allow them to retain their self-respect among New Zealand boys of their own age. Further, it was essential that a definite objective should be before the boys in the direction of financial assistance in proportion to their own efforts to enable them to finally make a start on the land for themselves.

The address was attentively listened to by the members of the club, and at the conclusion Mr Lees was accorded a vote of thanks for his interesting discourse, on the motion oi Mr E. Goodbeliere.