FLOCK HOUSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 429, 21 November 1930, Page 10

FLOCK HOUSES

THEIR FUTURE UNDECIDED STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN | Per Press Association. ] PALMERSTON N-, November 19. In response to many requests, Hon. Edward Newman, chairman of the Flock House trustees, has furnished the following official statement: “The trustees are fully in accord with the views expressed unanimously throughout New Zealand and overseas, that Flock House should be continued as a farm training centre for youths, and will do all in their power to facilitate that course, whether the benefits of the sound foundation laid at Flock House be secured for other overseas British boys and girls or for New Zea-land-born boys and girls. It is a matter for the people of New Zealand and the Government to decide. The simple facts are that the transitional stage will commence during the coming year ai.d the op pent unity for extending the

ichenie in any desired di eclion has arrived. The girls’ Flock House has now in residence the rust fa’ty of daughters of sailors killed or disabled during the war, and will be available early next year for the training of New Zealand girls. Flock House station will be required for the boys for some three or four years, but the transitional period has so closely arrived, that the numbers of the present class of trainees will begin to diminish next year and diminish increasingly each succeeding year, so that the equivalent number of trainees from a different section of thci community may be economically received and trained. A great desire has been expressed from England for a continuance of the work for British boys and a considerable offer of finance has been made, but the trustees recognise that when a special work foe which the Flock Houses were established has been completed the opportunity should be given to the New Zealand Government to take advantage of the organisation for the benefit of New Zealand born boys and girls, “Bv an .‘xtraordinarc process of reasoning and legal enactments, the funds of the society have been heavily mulcted in taxation (£38,277), during the process of this national work, but the subscribers no doubt will feel that this grievance has been somewhat removed if the moneys taken by the State in this way are used for the continuance and development of the work. The trustees assure the Government and public that they will do all in their power, compatible with the terms of their trust, to assist in making Flock House a national institution.”