RANGATAUA FARMERS' CLUB (Continued from page 29)

Te Ao Hou, Royal Tour 1953, Page 55

RANGATAUA FARMERS' CLUB (Continued from page 29) Some of the members are participants in a unique experiment under the Maori Affairs Department to place young Maoris on developed land after a term on a farm school. Three returned men, Messrs Bryan, Hayward and Milroys, after a term of training on the Maungarangi Farm School, have been settled on dairy farms cut out of that block, and are among the keen members. Two other members, Messrs T. Cairns and B. Te Kani, are participants in yet another experimental settlement scheme. They have been nominated by the owners to sttle on and farm an aggregation of small, uneconomic Maori holdings on the Kaitemako block. They, also, have grasped the opportunity of help offered by the Young Farmers' movement. As businessmen, the young farmers are also meticulous in the records they keep. All those facts, figures and dates necessary for running a farm smoothly are entered in diaries; production figures, dairy returns, herd tests, management and overhead costs are all entered into appropriate books and files, so that all have a pretty fair idea of what it costs to produce a given quantity. In fact, they realise they are businessmen as much as farmers and, as such, must be able at any given time to analyse capital accounts, as well as to find the balance of working costs in their income and expenses account. Meet these young farmers, and you realise you are in contact with men who are determined to ‘go places’. It was my privilege recently to hear them take part in a debate with a neighbouring Y.F.C. Their knowledge of the subject they were debating and their facility in the use of the English language would put many a pakeha to shame. They were a treat to listen to. And the thought came to me as I listened to them that their attack and handling of the debate were in keeping with the way they handle their own farms—a practical, commonsense manner, determined as they were from the outset that nothing but their best was good enough.