FARMS FOR FARMERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 293, 6 September 1919, Page 10

FARMS FOR FARMERS

|.. ..A-PROGRESSIVE SUGGESTION. ! j... At Wednesday's meeting of farmers in [ . Wanganui, Mr. W. J. Poison, in discussi ing the advisability of a .definite political f ; platform, said they, as farmers, should < have such a platform as would encourage • a peasant population throughout the j/.' country. Ho 6aid he 'believed in teaching I young men who wore desirous of going 011 ! tie land to become efficient farmers. Ho I advocated the establishment of practical i , farm schools in every district, managed by a board of expert farmers,, and in !' which young fellows oould bo put through i. ..a two years' course of training and be | paid adequate wages whilo engaged on the ; place. At'the end of tho term they would j be.required to pass a practical examina- ! tion, after which they should be placed ! on farms acquired and stocked by tho | State under virtually tho same conditions ! as now obtained in connection with the i ' settlement of returned soldiers. While i under' such a system the State might 1 occasionally sustain a loss owing to the | failure of a man to make good, tho indii rect benefit due'to greatly increased proI Auction would prove a splendid national | investment. Mr. Poison said that much 1.7 the. same thing could be dono for the ' 1 benefit of workers in the towns. • Blocks of suburban land could be acquired, cut I t ; . up, and laid out for residential purposes, with tramways and all other necessary ... facilities, tho homes to bo handed over I to tho occupiers on similar terms to those I provided for country 6ettlers. He pointj:" ed .out that if this were done it would 'i make for a contented population in both [ V town and country, and would sound the [a death, knell of the Red Feds and the' j ' Bolsheviks,