ASPECTS OF LAND SETTLEMENT

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 273, 21 November 1934, Page 3

ASPECTS OF LAND SETTLEMENT

Organised Juvenile Emigration Favoured DOMINION’S DEPENDENCY ON PRIMARY INDUSTRIES

Members of the Feilding Civic Club wero yesterday treated to an interesting address on aspects of land settlement in New Zealand, with particular refereuco to juvenii'o emigration for the provision of country workers, by Mr T. R. Lees, of Palmerston North. Introducing his subject, Sir Lees stated that during the past few years permanent departures from New Zealand had greatly exceeded the arrivals, while the declining birth rate, which reached a record low level last year, was another matter for serious concern. Was New Zealand to remain a community of a million and a-half people when it was capable, by progressive settlement, of carrying ten millions at the very ieast? The facilities were available for a far greater population than that Existing to-day, while there still remained thousands of acres of undeveloped land. “Now Zealand, ” he said, "must for many years depend for its prosperity on its agricultural and pastoral industries, and must have a continuous flow of youths willing to take country employment. Our own New Zealand boys must come first, but it is abundantly plain that there are not to-day sufficient, of such boys, with a desire for a life on the land, to meet the requirements of tbo country even under present conditions and with the improvement; of world trade the position will become more acute. The time is not ripe for unrestricted immigration, but there is scope j.or inquiry as to what type of settlers could readily lie absorbed without flooding the labour market and accentuating the unemployment problem, and probably the best typo will bo found to be juveniles. Of the many attempts that have been made to bring about a better distribution of the population of the Empire, few have met with such, wide approval or such uniform success as juvenilo migration. The movement has been recognised as ono of great value both to the Mother Country and to the Dominions. In tho one, besides reducing the surplus of young workers at ages when unemployment is most demoralising, it offers to hoys and girls of every class opportunities for healthy employment and useful service to the Empire. In tho other it fulfils a persistent demand for young agricultural workers and supplies a type of settler who, on account of his youth and adaptability, is readily absorbed into tho community. Organised juvenile emigration to the Dominions of the best typo of boys by philanthropic societies can bo stated to have received its first impetus through the Earl of Shaftesbury, wffio in 1849 obtained Government assistance for free outfits and passages to Australia for 150 specially selected boys. Although Government assistance was not renewed, a further 300 fine manly boys wore sent under the same auspices in the three following year 3 to Australia, and it is recorded that failures were less than 2 per cent. On account of the gold rush and the consequent unsettled conditions of tho Australian colonies, Canada was then considered a more suitable field, and for many years philanthropic societies devoted their attention to the migration of suitable* boys and girls to Canada. Many self-sacrificing men and women in Engi'nud and Canada devoted themselves to this work, notably Miss Eye and Miss Macpherson, who about 1870 established small depot farms in West Ontario and Quebec, to which the young people were taken before being placed with farmers. Dr. Barnado followed, and up to 1914, until tho war put a stop to tho movement, the total for all classes of juvenile migration to Canada was nearly 74,000. Tho after-war activities increased this number to nearly 88,000 by 1928.

Referring to Australia, Mr Lees said that, in 1009, when the question of naval dcfenco was being very keenly debated in Australia and New Zealand, the citizens of New South Wales voluntarily subscribed £90,000 towards providing a dreadnought for the British Navy. In the same year the Imperial and Australian authorities decided to maintain a fleet in Australian waters, and tko public subscription was no longer required. Tho donors thereupon agreed to vest the fund in trustees “to equip a farm or farms on which worthy British boys can be received, taught and boarded free for six months or a year, and distributed to the farmers of the State.” Thus, for a small fraction of the cost of a battleship, 1757 boys were settled in the Stato before war broke out. In 192(1 the immigration of “Dreadnought’' boys to New South Wales was continued, though for economy purposes the time of training was reduced to two or three mouths, and up to 1929 approximately a further 5500 were settled in. tho State. In 1921 Dr. Barnardo’s Homes extended their iield to New South Whiles, and up to 1928, 731 boys and girls were sottled by this body. Similar activity in the matter of juvenile emigration followed in the other States, and Mr Lees referred particularly to tho great work of the late Mr Kingsley Fairbridge, whose work in Western. Australia, is commemorated in the Fairbridge Farm School. The pioneer of organised juvenile migration to New Zeala-nd, said Mr Lees, was Mr T. E. Sedgwick, a prominent worker in boys’ clubs in London, who gave up a colonial appointment in order that he might help city boys to migrate. In 1910 he brought out the first fifty boys who were apprenticed to farmers and these were followed by several other parties before the war intervened. After the war a number of voluntary organisations recommenced juvenile migration. Parties sel’eted by tho Public Schools Employment Bureau began to arrive in 1924, and were sponsored by the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce and by the New Zealand Association of Public Schools of Great Britain. These boys were

mostly placed in employment immediately on arrival, though some of the younger boys were given a year’s special agricultural courso at the New Plymouth High School 1 , a few at Kuakura experimental farm, and a few at Waitaki Boys’ High School. Up to 1928 approximately 700 public schoolboys wmre placed in employment on the land in New Zealand. During the same period tho Salvation Army and the Church of England placed approximately 600 and 200 boys respectively, about half of the Salvation Army boys having some three months’ training at tho Putaruru farm before being placed in employment. The Flock House system was commenced in 1924, and was designed to train for a farming career the sons and daughters of British seamen who had lost their lives in the defence of the Empire. Before migration ceased 763 boys and girls were brought to New Zealand under the auspices of this system. Before initiating this organisation, a most careful study of all existing migration organisations was made, and everything that was considered good in each was coopted into this system. The results have, wo think, justified tho "work. It should be carefully noted that nearly all the work done in juvenile migration has been by voluntary philanthropic organisations. Government assistance, which implies control, has been mostly conspicuous by its absence, and this has possibly been ono of tho reasons for the success achieved.

Concluding, Mr Lees said that when juvenile migration is renewed, as it soon must be, this country must bo careful to seo that wo have learned from mistakes that were made in the past. It is not sufficient to bring boys to New Zealand and throw them untrained and unacclimatised among strangers to sink or swim. Few farmers have tho time or patience to train an entirely inexperienced boy, and the boy himself soou becomes sickened and leaves tho land at tho first opportunity Whatever tho cost, theso boys must have a. period of initial training to ground them in the Tudiments of farm work, teach them to work, and acclimatise them to New Zealand conditions, and make them worth such reasonablo wages as will enable them to retain their self-respect among New Zealand boys of their own age. There must also bo a strict system of aftercare under which the hoys will be watched over and encouraged until they reach maturity. Further again, there must be a definite objective before all such boys, ensuring that financial assistance in proportion to their own efforts will be available to enable them to make a start on the land for themselevs when they arrive at maturity and have proved themselves competent, trustworthy and thrifty men. Mr C. M. Sargisson presided and the usual vote of thanks was moved by Mr Edmund Goodbehere.