LAND THE CURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 29 July 1932, Page 7

LAND THE CURE

PROBLEM OF THE IDLE BOY LESSON OF PENROSE MORE INTENSIVE FARMING ADDRESS BY MR APPLETON “If the members of the club will subscribe £75, enough to keep 25 boys in camp for four weeks, and will then find them jobs, I will undertake to look after the other 25.” This offer was made by Mr W. A. Appleton in the course of an address on boy unemployment before the Wellington Rotary Club (reports the “Dominion”). Mr Appleton had been relating the experience gained in the training of Wellington boys at the Penrose Camp last summer. This work was so well done that every lad who had been in that camp had made good. Mr Apple ton is now keen to continue with the work, and proposes a camp of 50 boys, for the well-being of half of whom he is_ willing to hold himself responsible. PUBLIC CONSCIENCE “The public conscience needs stirring upon this question,” said Mr Appleton. “To-day there are hundreds of boys between 17 and 20 walking the streets. For this year many of the parents have been able to make arrangements for their boys to continue on at their colleges, which means that about the middle of December next there will be a double lot of boys seeking work. It' is one of the greatest problems of to-day—the case of young men between 18 and 20 years of age, not only here, but in nearly every other country in the world.”

Here Mr Appleton related what had been done by the joint committee of' the Y.M.C.A. and Rotary Club, which had registered and interviewed 700 boys. Of those they had been able to place 180 in and around the city, but there was still a tremendous number for whom no work could be found. The only hope for such boys was the land, and his aim was to do everything possible to get them away out of the city and on to the farms, even if only at week-ends. That was the idea when the Penrose camp was initiated, but when they got there it was the boys themselves who sought intensive training, and they all turned to be good lads for all sorts of farm work.

A GROWING MENACE “It has been said that there are 20,000 boys out of work in New Zealand,” Mr Appleton continued. “Whether that is so I am not able to say, but we do know- that there are a tremendous number ; and it is a serious thing for youths of that age. They see nothing ahead, are apt to become discouraged and get down in spirits until they are likely to become a menace to society. We all know the difficulties the Government has to contend with at the present time, yet it has its responsibilities as far as those boys are concerned. All over the world the only solution suggested for the world’s ills is greater production. Here in New Zealand the land has only been scratched.

“Realising the position, the Government, through Mr S. G. Smith, M.P., and Mr A. Ansell, M.P., has asked us for practical suggestions, and the new Citizens’" Committee'; formed by the Mayor, ‘isbringing down a report on the subject of boy employfnent. What we want now is a vocational officer like Mr Len Greenberg, secretary ,of the Y.M.C.A., who could establish a register and classify the boys as ' they are entered as to the work for which they are fitted. That will have to be done all over the country.

CITY MEN’S RESPONSIBILITIES ‘Much could be done if business men and masters of industry would take on supernumeraries,” continued Mr Appleton. “I see something of the kind has been successfully done at the Hutt. Even if you only paid them 6s a week it would be something. It is not the money so much as finding the boys something to do You nave to keep hoys between 16 and 20 occupied. “Things are now brightening up; we have got over the worst of the slump, and I want you all to help. “For our prosperity in the future this country has to look to the land,” declared Mr Appleton. “The cultivation of the soil in New Zealand is not a tenth of what it should be. You only have to look at Belgium, France, Denmark, and Holland to realise what intensive culvat-ion means. We have got better land here, and we are not getting the best out of it. In Wisconsin, in the middle west of the United States, they know more about close cultivation than we do, and there it is nearly all done through the medium of small farms. PROSPEROUS NELSON

“Nelson is ■ the most prosperous district in New Zealand to-day, and why? Because it is a district of small farms — areas devoted to dairying, fruitgrowing, hops and tobacco. So in the Manawatu farms of from 40 to 60 acres would produce the best results-—anything over 10Q acres appears to be disastrous. We have got to have real scientific farming and the boys cannot get it too young. , . And don’t look down on the cowpuncher. We are all too apt to pay respect to the white-collar brigade. Half of the men who are out of work are unable to handle a pick and shovel as they have been brought up to avoid hard work. The cultivation of the soil is the healthiest work that life can offer; it is a good occupation, and makes real men. Let us all show more respect for the men on the land. “I was told the other day of a young man who declined to carry a parcel for his mother as such manual work was beneath his dignity. If that is the product of modern education, then all I can say is there is something wrong with modern education. “Farming is not an easy life, but it is a very absorbing one requiring much Knowledge and actual manual toil,” Mr Appleton concluded. “It produces a sound body and robust mind, a healthy appetite, and a serene and happy spirit 1 . Let me conclude with a Hindu proverb which says much in little:— “Why risk with men your hard-won gold? Buy grain and sow. Your Brother Dust Wdl pay you back a hundredfold— The earth commits no breach of trust ”