SMALL RESPONSE TO FARMING SCHEME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 7

SMALL RESPONSE TO FARMING SCHEME.

GOVERNMENT PLAN WILL HELP DOMINION BOYS. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, January 3. The foundation has been laid and the initial work put in hand in connection with the scheme outlined by the Prime Minister some weeks ago for training New Zealand boj’s as farmers. The project was put forward by Sir Joseph Ward as an adjunct to the Government’s land settlement proposals. and it is hoped that it will have the co-operation of farmers and parents of lads whose inclinations are to follow farming pursuits. All the branches of the Farmers’ Union throughout the Dominion have been circularised, pointing out the conditions under which boys will be accepted and soliciting applications from both farmers and boys. Some six weeks have elapsed since this preliminary step was taken, and up to the present the response has been disappointing. The Department of Immigration, which has been chosen to administer the scheme, in view of its previous experience in connection with public school boys arriving in the Dominion to settle on the land, hopes that the interest of farmers’, parents and boys will be evidenced by a fillip in the number of applications received during the opening weeks of the new year. The guiding principles laid down by the Department for the control of the scheme are simple and direct. Boys must be of good character and physique, and will be allotted by the Department to approved farmers for emplovment under three main conditions. In the first place the boys, who will not be under fifteen years of age, will remain under the nominal control of the Department until thev have attained their majority. A lad is expected to remain for at least two years with his first employer, and he must clothe himself. Transfer from one employer to another will not be allowed without the consent of the Department. If a boy proves unsatisfactory or unsuitable for the work the farmer will be required first of all to report the case to the Department, in order that arrangements may be made for a transfer. The farmer will not be permitted to dismiss his charge without the Department’s consent. The second condition relates to wages Apart from the provision of clothing the bov is to be kept and housed by the farmer and paid not less than 10s a week for the first six months, and not less than 15s a week for the second six months, with periodical increases thereafter in accordance with his increasing value to his employer. The third main essential of the scheme is that lads will not be indentured, unless bv mutual agreement between the farmer and the parents, for a period of six months’ employment as was done in the settlement of bovs from abroad. Lads assisted under the present scheme will be required to furnish the Department direct with monthly progress reports, and employers in . their turn will be expected to render an account quarterly to the Department as to the prog'ress being made. Employers may. however, at anv time submit confidential reports. The housing of the bovs i- desired, wherever possible, to be apart from Ordinary farm hands; in other words they are to be given the benefits of association with the homestead. No special insurance scheme is being provided for in respect to the boys, but

every employer will be liable for his charge, of course, under the Workers’ Compensation Act. Farmers who have had experience of the English public school boys speak highly of the success of that scheme, and it remains to be seen whether a similar scheme can be applied to New Zealand-trained bo3*s.