DAIRY TRAINING FOR WIVES AND FAMILIES BEFORE MIGRATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 20 (Supplement)

DAIRY TRAINING FOR WIVES AND FAMILIES BEFORE MIGRATION.

SCHEME DEVISED BY THE BRITISH LEGION. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, October 17. The breezy uplands round about Chiseldon Camp, near Swindon, will next month become the scene of the first experiment in this country in the training of whole families for life on the land overseas. At the beginning of November 50 men. drawn from the ex-Service ranks and from those who are completing the last six months in the Services, will, with their wives and children, move into the camp, and in the spring they will sail for Canada. So that they may be free to learn all they can about such matters as milking cows, making butter and cheese, and the care of poultry and other livestock, the wives are to be relieved of most domestic duties. Each wife will have a cow and a pig and a few fowls to look after. The families will be catered for very much in the way they would be on board ship, the commandant of the camp, Col. H. J. Stibbard, explained to me to-day. Barrack rooms are being converted for their use. A special dairy, a cowshed, and a stock khed are being provided for the instruction of the women and children, for whom dairy and poultry instructresses will be available. While the wives and children are thus preparing for their future busy life on Canadian farms, the husbands will be learning how to manage horses, cattle and sheep, how to plough and, in short, how to become successful farmers. The training centre is nearly 2000 acres in extent and is equipped with farm buildings constructed by men who are receiving instruction in bricklaying, carpentry, and other trades as well as in farming. Col. Stibbard, who originated the scheme as it is being carried out here, pointed out that each of the families will go out to Canada to a farm of 160 acres. The husband will, in the first instance, gain knowledge of local conditions by working for one year on a neighbouring farm. A loan of £3OO will be granted by the British Government at the end of that year for stocking and equipping his farm. The British Legion has devised a scheme to enable each man ultimately to own his farm by paying 15s a week. The Legion is also assisting in the provision of the families’ passages to Canada.