FARMING OUTLOOK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21399, 25 January 1933, Page 10

FARMING OUTLOOK

GOOD TIMES RETURNING

LORD BLED ISLOE'S FAITH

ADVICE GIVEN TO BOYS [BY telegraph—OWN correspondent] NAPIER. Tuesday A more hopeful note, as far as tho farming outlook is concerned, was souhded by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe. speaking at the opening of France House, a charitable institution for boys, at Eskdale, to-day. His Excellency expressed his conviction that in a very short period the farmers would once again experience good times.

The greater part of His Excellency's speech concerned the training of boys for tho land and the grave dangers that beset the country attendant upon the drift to the towns. He expressed the view that life on the land was tho most likely occupation to afford a boy a full measure of health and happiness if ho would only enjoy the country as his Divine Master intended it to bo enjoyed, and if he carried out efficiently the tasks allotted to him in the course of his farming pursuits. Burden of Institutions "Hospitals, asylums, sanatoria and similar institutions are an increasingly heavy burden upon this community as upon those of other lands," said His Excellency, "and, if I may say so, they provide in this country for too large a proportion of the population. Tho greatest preventive specifics are, on the one hand, religion, and on the other, self-reliance. Self-reliance cannot be properly secured without suitable training. "I am delighted to hear that these boys are taught the simple tasks which they would have to perform on the land. I am going to suggest that before they reach the ago of 17 they should learn to handle stock, for the more I see of incapable farmhands on the land the more I believe that the man who can best handle stock is the one who receives his training before he reaches the age of IS. The more these young men can learn in regard to stock the more useful they will be on the land and the more likely will they be to become efficient and successful farmers. Attractions of Town Life "No doubt town life is very attractive," continued His Excellency. "No doubt the streets, entertainment houses, hotels and the other attractions of town life are great, but I am one of those who believe that the unbalanced drift to the towns is a danger to the universe at the present time. It is eating into the vitals of the whole world and to-day, when unemployment is so rife, the task is rendered infinitely more difficult when the various borough authorities have to provide not only for their own workless, but for those coming into the town from the country. "The man on the land can at least stave off starvation and keep his family by cultivating his land and keeping a certain amount of stock. To my mind, in days of extremo economic emergency like these, it is well to remind those •who are tempted to join the drift to the towns that they are far more likely to retain at least a livelihood if they remain on tho land. I feel that you who are connected with this building are doing good work in so training boys for a life on the land and so helping to stem the drift to the towns, where work is so hard to find."