THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1934. TRAINING AT PENROSE.

Wairarapa Age, 18 July 1934, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1934. TRAINING AT PENROSE.

Experience of past camps at the Training Farm at Penrose has shown that boys given a short but intensive course of agricultural instruction are quite capable afterwards of taking up farm employment in conditions satisfactory to themselves and to their employers. As in other training schemes, there has, of course, been a proportion of failures, but the percentage of success in the camps conducted at Penrose by Mr. L. J. Greenberg and other Y.M.C.A. officials has been creditably high. The Wellington Boy Employment Committee is now proposing to extend the scope of the training scheme very considerably, by keeping the camp open from October to March and by accepting boys for training from any part of the Dominion. ’ As hitherto, the period of training for each boy will be approximately four weeks. Provided there is a reasonable assurance of satisfactory employment for the boys trained, the extension of the scheme is very desirable indeed and should be supported readily in the Wairarapa, as well as in Wellington and other parts of the Dominion. Amongst other things, it is proposed to follow up trainees, after they have been established in employment, through the agency of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union and in other ways. This is a very important part of the enterprise and one that should be developed to the greatest possible extent. The question may arise of offering some educational facilities to trained boys who are prepared to make use of them. Apart from its immediate value, the farm training project it is how proposed to extend and enlarge at. Penrose may be important in pointing- the way to broaderbased and more elaborate measures aiming at a solution of the problem of youth unemployment.