"FINE TYPE DEVELOPING"

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 10

"FINE TYPE DEVELOPING"

YOUTHS ON THE LAND.

SALVATION ARMY SCHEME

YOUNG SETTLERS SHOW PROMISE

"A very fine type of young man is being developed," states a, letter from the Immigration-and'Settlement Department of the Salvation Army, referring to the lads who are being placed on the land in New Zealand. The communication,, which.was received at the recent conference on juvenile settlement, organised by the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League, states that on October 1, 1924, the first party of lads, numbering 30, arrived on the Athenic and went to the training farm at Putaruru. Since ihat date, and up to the present moment they had received 607 lads in eighteen batches, this making a grand total of 703 lads for farm work. Of these 415 had been trained at Putaruru, and the balance of 288 had received their "breaking in" at Hadleigh Farm Colony, England, and placed with employers direct from the ship's side. Thirty-two lads, included in the 415 quoted above, are now at Putaruru receiving training. Of the full total of arrivals, and based on the latest aftercare reports, is is estimated that 94 per cent are still engaged in farm work, in cither dairy, sheep or agricultural lines. "Taking a fair average all round a very fine type of young man is' beina developed," states the report, "and men who, it given opportunity for which they ™«£ * n S e givin S of * w »i<* will solve IS/ M? C ° nOmic Problems of the On 4 P : : ° Ve t0 be the 'backbone of the, country aiu i worthy son* of the foundation Briti«li pioneered this dd^SSft^ 01 * Wh °- ""liis fact being evidenced on all sides, the question now arises as Tr vvhat prospect there is f or the \eai> tion of the hopes of these potential hr~ mers. Many of them have been in the Dominion, for periods, extending '£ three to five years and have been an st. are saving their hard-earned waS with a view to. placing a deposit on 5 small section -of their own, and liniUHh* the home which they have dreamed of and thb ideas whicli-they have fostered

in their hearts and minds for years past. Quite a number of these lads are now young men whose ages range to twentythree years. What of the Future? "There have been instances where lads have already taken places as sharemilkers, and one lad, in conjunction with his brother, has taken over a property, and promises to do -well, but such instances are very isolated. In the main, the opportunity docs not exist, and the young man with a little vision sees this, and nothing disheartens him more than to see no possibility of his hopes being brought to fruition. 'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.' Young fellows have said to us that on the present' system it means that twenty years, the best of thier lives, must be 'spent in ordinary'farm labour, working for the benefit of another, before they will have anything like a suitable and sufficient sum to deposit on a farm, and be exempt from heart and back breaking interest burdens. Our young men do not expect to be millionaires in the first ten years of their colonial life, but they do desire the opportunity to express themselves in that independent and competitive spirit which makes for the production of the best quality and greatest quality of necessary things of life. Such expression is not only in the best interests of New Zealand, but has its effect in the advantaging of the whole Empire and -further afield to all the nations of the earth. "In this department, we conduct what is called 'The Youths' Trust Fund/ and we have an arrangement with the employers and the willing approval of Urn lad's individual account in the fund." less agreed upon proportions of pocket money at stated periods, preferably monthly, and the money is credited to , the lad's individual accoutn in the fund.'"'