TRAINING FOR SETTLERS

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16711, 29 January 1926, Page 8

TRAINING FOR SETTLERS

EMPIRE LEAGUE SCHEME.

A FARM NEAR LONDON. A meeting in support of the Empire League for Training and Oversea Settlement was held at Gaxton Hall, London, recently. Mr A. A. Somcrville, M.P., who presided, said the scheme was not calculated to interfere with any existing scheme. Great Britain wanted room and the Dominions wanted people, but whereas the latter wanted agriculturists, the population we could spare was industrial. The problem was, to make that spare population acceptable to the Dominions, and these people would have a very much greater chance if they had some degree of training before leaving England. That was the aim of the Empire League, which proposed to take laiftl —they had a farm in view 25 miles from London —and prepare the farm for the reception of a number of families, and young men as well. The War Office could provide them with hutments' at a very, reasonable cost, and Canada and Australia were prepared to supply instructors. A man would thus go out, after six months' or a year's training, to the Dominions with some degree of familiarity with agricultural work, while his wife would-be trained in milking, making butter, keeping poultry, and cooking. The upkeep of the farm would, he thought, be fairly simple. Boards of guardians had stated that they would he prepared to send families and pay for their maintenance; the British Legion, if they sent families or young men, were also prepared to pay for maintenance, and no doubt if they made good some contribution would come from the Government. Canon Donaldson proposed that "in view of the difficult and dangerous national conditions," the proposals of the League were worthy of active support. He referred to the prejudice of the working classes against emigration in the past, and saw that if this scheme was presented properly that prejudice would die out. Its basis was that agriculture was a skilled industry, and he believed that it would make for the happiness of mankind and help to lessen the number of youths who went into the blind-alley occupations. Mr J. S. Wardlaw Milne, M.P., seconding, said while proportionally our trade with foreign countries .was not increasing, our trade with the Empire had increased a great deal, so that from a purely selfish point of view it was to our advantage to secure an increase in the self-supporting population of the Dominions. Miss St. John Wilcman supported the resolution. She said that the Dominions Convention of Canadian clubs had approved the outlines of the scheme, which also had the support of the Churches and the Canadian Pacific Railway, so that it was not a manufactured scheme which had been 'foisted on Canada from- this side. The resolution was carried, as was a further resolution urging that the scheme would conserve national health and moral, redress, the balance of population in Britain without injury to farming and urban industries, and afford families, women, and lads desiring to make self-supporting careers increasing opportunities for employment and co-operative group land settlement oversea.