THE CALL OF THE LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1916, Page 5

THE CALL OF THE LAND.

LITTLE RESPONSE FROM UK TURNED SOLDIERS. AUCKLAND EXPERIENCE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Feb, 14. Since the Auckland Discharged Soldiers' Bureau was established jubt a " month ago, employment has been found for about fifty ex-campaigners and men who have broken down under iiie strosii,. of training in camp. 'J'uere are »JII some seventy applicants for work on the books of the olHce, and oilier* are making their appearance in gruitcr or less numbers every day. The experience of the bureau ko lar as it has gone seems to contradict one thiuj that has been widely entertained as tt the influence of the war upon social evolution. It has been assumed that ai (lie re suit of the soldiers' experience of openair life in the Held, the inclination of townsmen on their return will be to forswear urban occupations and betake themselves to Die country. Tho disposition oi the majority of the men who have applied for work up to dato is in quite the opposite direction; Practically none of the townsmen arc inclined to go to the country. Even anvtng the men whose former occupations Were on the land there is a preference for city jobs. A considerable number of positions in the way of light farm or dairy work arc now at the disposal of the bureau, but hardly any of the applU cants arc prepared to undertake them. For tho last month there has been s, standing offer from a farmer at Maramarua to take several men for eaey work at wages to be fixed by the bureau. according to the soldier's capabilities, but so far not one soldier has been prepared to go. The mention of milking on ever so light a scale, and even of the, oversight of milking machines, seenq.~ v . especially distasteful to the applicant^