BOYS FOR FARM WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 13

BOYS FOR FARM WORK

RELUCTANCE TO LEAVE CITY OPENINGS AWAITING THEM THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS Difficulties in settling city boys on farms were stressed yesterday by Mr. A. E Robinson, secretary of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, which has been interested in the problem for several year:3. "It is true that there are many boys in the city who might take up farm work and it is equally true that there are openings for them," said Mr. Robinson. "However, our experience has shown that it is a mistake to believe that there are great possibilities in supplying farm needs with lads fresh from school. In the majority of cases they are not willing to go far from the city or else their parents prefer to keep them at home." Mr. Robinson said that frequently members of the union asked him to procure a likely boy from Auckland. In some cases, the lads had refused to go far into the country, and in others parents had objected to their being sent any distance Ho knew that the homes available were good ones, but it seemed that most boys did not relish life away from the amusements of the city. Parents preferred to keep them until there were openings in the professional and office avenues. Two cases, which he claimed were typical, were quoted by Mr. Robinson. He said one boy was sent to Bombay, but after three days he returned to Auckland. He told his employer he was home-sick. In another instance a lad was sent to Kaukapakapa, and met his prospective employer on the railway station platform. Asked by the farmer whether he thought' he would enjoy farm life, he said he was confident he would not. The boy Baid further that he was not prepared to rise early for milking. He returned to Auckland by the next train.

Mr. Robinson said there seemed little possibility of success in putting boys on farms unless farming became a more payable proposition and a good future was opened, or the nature of the average lad underwent a change. At present, work which would ordinarily be done by boys was being taken by older youths who were prepared to work for a small wage

NUMBER WITHOUT WORK STATEMENT BY MR S. G. SMITH [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] NEW PLYMOUTH, Thursday A denial that he had estimated, as reported, that the number of boys who had left school at the end of last year and were now unemployed was 2902 is made by Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., who, with Mr. A. E. Ansell, M.P., is associated with the Unemployment Board in dealing with the problem of unemployed boys. Mr. Smith says that all the committees, in New Zealand have not completed their records and none is in a position to say how many boys are without work. Confusion had arisen probably from the statement that 16,467 boys left the schools last year. Of that number, 1358 were going to their homes, and the destination of 1544 was not known. Mr. Smith thinks that the 20,000 so often referred to is an estimate founded probably on the fact that that number of boys left school in 1930. Mr. Smith and Mr. Ansell recently completed a tour of the Dominion in connection with unemployment, but the former refuses to make an estimate of the number of workless boys.