RURAL HANDICAPS

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 5

RURAL HANDICAPS

STATE OF ENFORCED CELIBACY.

COTTAGE SCHEME PRAISED

In the various proposals for alleviating unemployment it is important that works should be undertaken that will be of permanent benefit to New Zealand, and that foundations be laid which will tend toward preventing a recurrence of the present position (writes Mr T. R. Lees, managing trustee of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund). The new* scheme of providing a cottage and five to ten acres of good land for married fann and station workers, on or adjacent to large farm or station properties w*here w*ork is usually available, is one w*hich should be of inestimable benefit, and w*hich should not cease w*ith the return of more prosperous times. The proposal strikes at the root of one very real cause for the drift of country workers to town, a drift which has caused such great concern, and that cause has been the failure to provide for the married farm worker. MARRIED MEN HANDICAPPED. Only a small percentage of mediumsized farms have any accommodation for married employees, and on the largest stations it is rare that there are cottages for more than two or three married men. The great majority of fann and station workers have to live in a state of enforced celibacy. For many years there has been a continual heavy annual wastage of young farm and station labour, running in teh aggregate into tens of thousands, from this cause alone. Young men go into the country with the highest hopes and enthusiasm, intending to make it their life work. Thev become competent shepherds, teamsters, dairymen, and general farm workers, always sure o; a ‘job so long as they remain single. But the time comes w*hen, in the natural and rightful order of things, the voung man wishes to marry and hav e a home of his ow*n, as his town cousin is able to do; and it is in the best interests of himself and his country that he should do so. HUNDREDS MIGRATE TO THE CITIES. “"The great majority cannot marry and have their own home unless they leave the country and go into town; consequently every year hundreds of the best of our young manhood, fully trained and competent at farm woik, migrate to the city. The new proposals will help to reinstate in tne country a large number of these men, who have fallen on evil times in town, and give them the opportunity to make a fresh start under conditions most congenial to them. The work must not stop, however, when the present emergency has been met, but should be a permanent policy aimed to encourage marriage of our young country workers, and their continued after-employment on the land. Prevision against transfer of allotments must not be made too rigid, for, as time goes on, a large number of these married farm workers will accumulate sufficient to enable them to acquire and work farms of their own. and their cottage allotments should be available for the younger men who, in their turn, wish to marry and settle down.

This cottage allotment scheme will appeal to all who have had experience with country workers _as the soundest and most constructive proposal which has yet been placed before New Zealand, and which will bear fruit for many years after we have forgotten these years of stress.