LAND FOR YOUTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23029, 5 May 1938, Page 17

LAND FOR YOUTH

HELP IN ACQUISITION PROVISION OF INCENTIVE MANAWATU PROPOSAL [BY TELEGRAPH- —OWN CORRESPONDENT] PALMERSTON NORTH, Wednesday ' " I suggest that we who are on the land to-day will stay there if possible for two reasons," declared Mr. H. J. McLeavey, of Ohau, president of the Manawatu provincial executive of the Farmers' Union in his report to the annual conference of delegates. " Firstly, we have invested our capital and our services in our farms, and, secondly, would we fit into any other occupation now or would we be the proverbial square peg in a round hole?"

Continuing, Mr. McLeary asked, what of the future? Would the rising generation of farmers be prepared to work 60 hours a week when better wages, shorter hours and more attractive conditions generally were offering in other walks of life? Would he be prepared to carry the financial worries and responsibilities, as well as the worries of pestilences, flood, drought, and the hundred and one ills likely to beset stock on farm lands? Definitely he would say, "Xo," unless an incentive cotdd be found, not only to keep him on the land, but also to keep him contented when there. How better could that be done than by removing the farm labourers' occupation from the list of blind alley jobs? With that end in view, Mr. McLeavey suggested the following remit for the forthcoming interprovincial conference in Wellington:— "Where a farm helper (farmer's son or farm labourer) has given approved service to the land for a given length of time, and has proved his sense of responsibility by saving a definite proportion of his wages, he be afforded an opportunity of, becoming a farmer under a special land settlement scheme instituted for this particular type of worker." The meeting endorsed the remit.