YOUNG FARMERS’ CLUB

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4194, 9 June 1939, Page 5

YOUNG FARMERS’ CLUB

KNOWLEDGE FOR USE IN FUTURE. A VALUABLE MOVEMENT. A striking tribute to the value of the work done by Young Farmers’ Clubs was paid by Mr W. McLaren, a former president of the New Zealand Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs in a recent address. “No movement in recent times,” said Mr McLaren, “is destined to have a greater effect in New Zealand than the starting of young farmers’ clubs.” Mr McLaren said he had travelled from one end of the Dominion to the other in connection with the organisation, and he had no hesitation in saying that he had met dome of the finest types of young men in the Dominion as members of the federation. These were men who in a few years would play a leading part not only in agricultural and pastoral affairs, but in the affairs of the country as a whole. In the past the older farmers had not had the opportunity of acquiring knowledge that was now available to the young men. Much of this knowledge had been the result of experiment for which they had prid dearly, so it was up to the young men to store up a fund of knowledge of which they could make full use in future years. Though of such recent origin, the Young Farmers’ Club Federation in New Zealand had a membership of more than 5000 in 192 clubs. It was already well established, and there need be no limit to its eventual strength and scope of activity. In the past breeders had been reticent about imparting their knowledge to the younger members of the farming community. That day was now passed. The individual breeders, the breed societies, the Farmers’ Union, A and P. societies, and the Department of Agriculture, were out to help the young farmer to the utmost, and the Young Farmers’ Club organisation had the goodwill of the whole community.