FARMERS AND THEIR NEEDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1797, 9 July 1913, Page 4

FARMERS AND THEIR NEEDS.

BETTER EDUCATION. > ■ LETTERS FROM FAR AND WIDE. BCDGET NO. VIII. The questioto as originally published in the Country Life Issue of The Dominion are as' follow 1. Arc,the Schools in your .neighbourhood training boys and girls satisfactorily for life on the farm ? 2. Do the farmers in your neighbourhood get tho returns they reasonably should from the pale of their products? 3. Do the farmers in your neighbourhood recoive from the railways and roads .the. ser.vico they reasonably should expect? 4. Do tho farmers in your neighbourhood, receive from the postal service, riiral telephones, etc,,, the service they,reasonably should expect? . 5. Are the farmers in your neighbourhood obtaining direct benefit from the holding of Agricultural Shows t G. Has the work of the Department of Agriculture been of direct benefit • to the farmers in your neighbourhood? 7. Are ,the farmers atid their wives in : your neighbourhood satisfactorily organised to iprotect their mutual buying and selling interests? 8. Are the renters of farms in your neighbourhood making a, satisfactory living? ■ _ 9. Is the supply of farm labour in your neighbourhood satisfactory? , 10. Are the conditions Surrounding wage labour on the farms in your neighbourhood satisfactory to the labourer? 11. WHAT IN YOUR JUDGMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE THING TO BE DONE FOB THE GENERAL BETTERMENT OP " COUNTRY LIFE? •

A wide .range of opinion is covered in this instalment of' the replies to Tiie' Dominion's inquiries as to tlie most' pressing needs of rural, life. By each, day's mail fresh letters are still reaching this office, and many other, letters than those now appearing are already in type'and waiting their turn. TO KEEP THE BOYS ON THE FARM. OPPORTUNITIES FOR RECREATION. Sir, —I have read with very great interest tlio articles in your Country Life issue on the needs of the farmer and how to make country life more attractive. Your paper deserves every credit for the efforts it has made to improve the lot of the man on the land. I would liko to deal with two of the questions to which you invite replies. In answer to Question 1, there is practically nothing being done in the public schools in this district to train children to make successful farmers. There is no doubt that -the farmer of the future will require to have a good knowledge of agricultural chemistry, and the foundation of this should be laid in the upner standards of our public schools. The difficulty is that our schoolmasters are not competent to teach this subject as it should be taught. To bs successful in this work a. teacher should not only have the theoretical knowledge of his subject, but lie must also be <i practical farmer or ols© ,he cannot impart his knowledge in a way that a boy of, say. twelve, can get any real benefit from. To do this means that half the time devoted to this subject must be spent outdoors in practical work. „ Only in this ,way can this nreparatory work be of any real use to the boy after he has left school and has begun to learn scientific farming. I think that State farms where scientific farming _ would be taught shoitld bo as freely available to our. boys as secondary education is'now. What an increase there would be in the natural wealth of the country in oho generation if our '-oung farmers. had the advantage of the scientific i knowledge on the subject that is available to-day? Not only that, but with trained minds, they would by experiments .ljq ...always., -.increasing. their knowledge with' benefit to themselves and to the country. Another advantage, of agricultural colleges, for such these State farms would really be, would : ba .that- town "boys With a taste for'firming would be-able to-get'the practical, (is well • fts the theoretical knowledge iripcessavy to become successful farmers. Tlio tendency of tlio ordinary high school syllabus is towards fitting a boy. for o trade or profession in town rather ' than for a farmer. I. am sure that money speni; by the Government, jn this direction wo 1,1 Id"be a'croojtl investment for the State, even should" the cost of such a scheme appear great in proportion to the immediate benefit. The tendency in the future will bo for the sizo of country holdings to become smaller, andi that means that the soil will have .'to be treated .more intelligently than it has been in • the past.

2.—The returns from the sale of pro< ducts are satisfactory.

To your last question, I .would sav that the greatest problem of country life is how to keep our young people from gravitating towards, the towns, for unless we can keep our boys and girls interested {{V 'h.® 1 ' wor k the attraction of town life will sooner o? later beoomc too much for many of them. Town life has nlwavs been attractive to young people, and never more so than at the present tinis when there are so many different avenues or amusement and. recreation • onen. and .we must faee the - nuestion of providing some compensation for our bovs and girls who cannot partake of tiie pleasures of the town. Another fact can be noted h!ere. When a country boy is sent to a High School, that term of town life 111 many cases creates , a distaste for iflrjn life; and a desire to tnkc up some calling in town. I do not see why those subjects of' secondary education that would be of use to- «• boy on the land could not bo taught in an agricultural college. Ihe lack of recreation has often commencfd in this way : A voun" married couple will go back and take up a block' of land, and for years they have a hard struggle to improve' their property and make both'ends meet. The habit is formed of working from daylight to dark, week in. week out. with hardly a thought for anything outside of their work. When their children grow un and come to an age when young people look for a little pleasure in life, 'their parents often think that they ought to be satisfied to go on in the ..same old way. To retain the interest .of our own 1>0y.9 in farm life, and also. .of. the.boys wjio may bo working for us, wo must be prepared' to give them more time for recreation. The town boys have plenty of time for recreation (perhaps too much), and we must devise means to make up in some measure what our boys have lost by remaining on tho farm. If we can keep our boys with us until they aro old enough, to weigh and see for thomselves the solid advantages of country as compared with town life, they will have no desire to leave us.

The problem is not an easy one to solve, but if our fanners would (jive way a littto and remember that they were onoe young, too, the path of country lifo could ba made a lot moro attractive to our hoys thaJi it often is now. If farmers could be brought to see tho ultimate advantage to themselves of such a course-, 1 think they would readily agree to such a proposal. I would suggest also that farmers pay their boys a fixed wage, and cncourage them to save ud for a farm of their own. The want of this is often tho first cause of discontent in a boy. 110 sees other boys "out on their own." getting a regular wage, and naturally lio wants to do likewise. This is often a sore point 'with boys working at home. Tho difficulty of getting together owing to distance and bad roads is one of the chief troubles in newly-settled districts, and the needs of these places diould have Rpecial consideration in any plans for •improvement. Your article on travelling libraries shows what could be.done in one direction, not only providing recreation, but iriving, opportunities for improvement of the mind. T have dealt in this letter solelv with the . interests of our young people, for I realise that if wo can keep our boys and girls in the country, and increase the production of wealth from the soil, we will not have much to fear from tho .poisonous doctrines of Socialism. —I am, etc., A. H. B. Hole-in-the-Wall, Gisborne. ISOLATED MAKARETU. A ROUND-ABOUT TELEPHONE SERVICE. A sottler at, Makaretu, in Hawke's Bay, replies .as follows;— . I,—The schools hcra are on • nar irith I fcCiwlSt

3—No; our railway service is worse than it was 20 years ago, in that we can only get goods to our station (Takapau) twice a week, which is most inconvenient. There should bo a daily goods service as in years gone by. Roads here are, generally speaking, good, with the exception of one leading to a block of rougli country at the back of us, which th-o Government opened'eonre twoor three years ago. This roa<l should be constructed without delay. And here 1 would like to point out the shocking way that public money is wasted by the Government method of appointing a "boss" to look after n couple of men, instead of having a decent-sized gang on, bo that it would pay to keep an overseer, or.elso letting the work by contract. Two men and a "boss" have been scratching away up at the back for a year or two, and stifl no road. I—Our postal sejvice is fair. Our telephone communication is by no means what we could desire. What we want is direct communication with our nearest railway station, and township of Takapau. This is our natural outlet, through which all our business passes, and distant from here about ten or twelve miles. In this township of Takapau we have our nearest doctor, ohemist, banking house, ctc., and yet to communicate by telephone to any of these we have to be connected through the Waipawa. exchange, a distance of 6ome 40 or 50 miles, and invariably when you ring up Waipawa and ask lor Takapau you get the.Teply, "Line engaged," and when you have waited a couple of hours or so your patience is exhausted and you leave in disgust. , No matter how urgent your business may be, you rarely can get through, whioh is most inconvenient, away here in the back-blocks. ; Eight or nine miles of line is what we want the Department to erect, OS -this would-give us a direct connection with Takapau, and would not cost a'§rcat deal. 5, 6, and 7.—No direet benefit here from agricultural .shows, or the work. of the. Department of Agriculture, and no buying and selling organisation among farmers, , ' B.—Renters of farms are making a satisfactory living. 9.—Labour is not too satisfactory, ana very often. difficult to get. ijj'tXO—■Conditions of farm labour are satisfactory,,, Y 11—If you give country settlers good roads, good telephone service, and cheap money, they will thrive fairly well; if tlioy 'don't, ifs their own fault. PIONEERING ON THE MAIN TRUNK. SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. The reply printed below comcs from a farmer out-back from Taumarunui. 1. Tins is a pioneer block which has now been opened five years. A school was opened here a few weeks ago, and instruction is now given three days a week. If settlers with families are to be settled on the waste land then the State should do more to help on tho education of these way-back children. There is not nearly enough consideration given to the back-country • children, many' of whoso parents arc "struggling hard to clear their farms, and will not be in a position to send their children where they can get a finished education, as is done by many settlers who are well established and can afford to do so. No wonder many parents with families hesitate about going into tlieso new districts.

We don't, as yet, get the returns that we should.; We are in tho King Country which is . a district in the making; and we are badly handicapped with bad roads 'and. lack handy'markets for ojir surplus stock.

3. Wo have no . complaint against tho rrailways, but'against tho present road system we have a genuine grievance. Wo have been fivo'yeai'3 in here, and many settlers behind jis have been longer. Wo have only a six-foot track for tho majority of the way into our township which is 10 miles distant. _To get our stock irt and out in tho winter requires four times the amount of time and helpers than what would be required on a good road. The heavy cist of getting out wool and getting in food, wire, grass seed, and the dozen and one things necessary on a farm, is a great and unnecessary tax on tho energy and pockets of the settlers who require every available shilling to improve their holdings. Nothing has now been don© to our road (which is a main one) for nearly three years. Judicious expenditure on roads would be a good investment for the people of New Zealand as settlers on mere tracks havo to do without many things that they would gladly have, and the trading community could, with profit to themselves, supply to them. The settlers' lands qro heavily loaded for loads and something should be done to help them.

i The Postal Department is too niggardly in the delivery of mails. We only get information from the outside world once a week. To have a telephone service would bo a luxury indeed. Many a long trip has to be made through tho mud, to attend to somo business which could easily be done in a few minutes by the use of the telephone. liecently a telegram had to be delivered here, a distance of nino miles, and it cost .El for delivery—surely an unanswerable argument for a telephono and a better mail service!

5. Agricultural shows sro a source of pleasure and profit to most farmers.

6. Wo are satisfied with the work done by the Agricultural Department and includo the "Agricultural Journal," published by tho Department, in our apnreciation. 7. We have no organisation for buying and selling. 8. All the settlers are Crown tenants on various tenures, much of tho loud carries rather a high rental for bush lands, and many settlers are having a hard row to hoe in paying their rents and carrying on their improvements at the same time. 9. Oil the whole there is more work than labour offering. Bush-fellers, fencers, etc., now earn particularly good wages, as much as and upwards per week being made. 10. Any decent man will, as a rule, get excellent treatment on the farms about here. ; 11. Make the wide enough for vehicles—the settlers will soon endeavour to metal (hem—and cive a good moil and telephone service, ami back-country life speedily becomes more attractive. The setller feels that he is in touch with civilisation again; he moves about more, indulges more in- fho. comforts of life, jets better returns for his products. Perhaps he buys a busey ami pair, where before only a pack-horse wos used. In fact, he becomes more useful to the romv try generally and the towns soon find out that one settler on a good road will be of more u?e to them than three settlers on a bad road.