PUBLIC SCHOOL SETTLERS

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1928, Page 15

PUBLIC SCHOOL SETTLERS

GROUP FARMING ADVOCATED CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SCHEME. IMPENDING VISIT OF LORD LOVAT. "You would get the group system and subdivision as well,” said Mr. S. Vickers last night when advocating that the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce should recommend a scheme whereby four or five English public schoolboys would be assisted to obtain and work between them a dairy farm of, say, 200 acres. The advantages of such a type of settlement to the district were manifest, he said. The question being discussed by the council was the impending visit to New Plymouth of Lord Lovat, Under-Secre-tary for Dominion Affairs and chairman of the Overseas Settlement Committee. Mr. Vickers said he understood Lord Lovat would inquire into the scheme under which the chamber brought out boys from Home, a scheme in which the Overseas Settlement Committee had not previously taken any interest. In the event of Lord Lovat being satisfied with the scheme, would the committee be prepared to assist in the future? Mr. C. 11. Weston said he believed the Rt. Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery had suggested the Imperial Government should make loans.

Mr. Vickers said his point was would the Home authorities be prepared to assist if they desired to send more boys out under the scheme? “That is a matter that will be discussed between Lord Lovat and the New Zealand Government,” said Mr. T. C List. He pointed out that the Minister of Lands had recently promulgated a scheme under which a number of settlers could combine and purchase an estate through the Government. Mr. Vickers: Is the chamber in a position to recommend what form the assistance should take?

Mr. List pointed out that at present a number of boys were securing their own farms or interests in farms, and parents of others were prepared to financially support the boys when they had obtained sufficient experience. If the Imperial Government were prepared to send boys here, the best thing would be to finance them on the lines he had suggested, said Mr. Vickers. Mr. W. J. Penn said Lord Lovat had come to New Zealand to discuss sueh schemes. The Imperial Government had ser aside a very large sum for overseas settlement, and it wanted to find the best way of utilising the money. Mr. List said it was essential for success that the person on the land, or his family, should have some financial interet in the land. Otherwise they would have the soldier settlement disaster over again. Mr. Vickers’ idea was quite a good one up to that point. If Mr, Vickers would bring his suggestion before the immigration committee in a concrete form it could be considered and submitted to Lord Lovat as a suggestion from the committee. Mr. Vickers, in agreeing to this suggestion, said he had only brought forward the proposal because they did not seem to have anything concrete to put before Lord Lovat.