FARM TRAINING

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 109, 1 February 1935, Page 13

FARM TRAINING

Boy Employment Course Commences Shortly

PENROSE CAMP SCHEME Only a few days remain now for enrolments in the first of the series of the 1935 agricultural training courses for unemployed boys. The Wellington Boy Employment Committee has completed arrangements with the various authorities enabling the boys to enter training on February 11. The training centre will be that used for the previous Penrose Camp, a working farm of over 700 acres located near Waingawa, about seven miles from Masterton.'

The farm buildings, placed at the disposal of the committee by the farm trustees, of which Sir William Perry is chairman, are specially adapted for ■ this training work. The committee will have at its disposal commodious dining and recreation rooms, cooking and culinary facilities, storerooms, sleeping accommodation for boys and staff, water, drainage, playing area, lighting plant, milking shed, working and farming facilities. The whole of this equipment is in close proximity to the Waingawa River, where the boys may swim.

The training centre will have excellent holiday features for the boys, but the agricultural training aspect will be paramount. The Department of Agriculture has again promised to do what it can to assist in providing lectures and demonstrations, while the services of local farmers have also been enlisted. An attractive curriculum of practical farm training work, in which the boys will actually participate, is now being prepared. This will include the use, manipulation, and care of tools and implements, hand and machine milking, fencing, horse and team work, sheep work, and visits to nearby farms. Recreation ITogramriie. An excellent programme of recreation is being arranged, and the Masterton citizens are being invited to cooperate in the provision of various forms of entertainment. The general programme of the course is being evolved along lines which will provide the boys with a variety of interests, and at the same time ensure the maximum of farm instruction. Mr. L. J. Greenberg, general secretary of the Y.M.C.A., will again be in charge of the course. Medical officers, instructors, and other assistants will also be appointed. Boys desiring to enrol should apply immediately to theY.M.C.A. The general secretary will be pleased to interview parents who desire to consider this training opportunity for their boys. To qualify for enrolment the boy or yOuth must give some evidence of good character, and a desire to work in the country in the event of an opportunity offering. Ho must be in reasonably good health, and have the written consent of parent or guardian. The course is restricted to boys and youths under 21 years of age. “Not a Relief Camp.” The course is by no means in the nature of a relief camp; it is carried out by voluntary, effort on behalf of the citizens of Wellington with a view to assisting parents and boys in the present circumstances prevailing in the community. Preference will bo given to boys in the order of their suitability and date of application. Any boy resident within the Wellington district is eligible to attend the course. Training will he of an intensive nature for a period of one month. There will be no charge. Contributions of goods-in-kind, such as jams, fruit, and other food suitable for the boys in camp, would be appreciated by the committee. Goods maybe left at the Y.M.C.A., or the committee can arrange for it to be collected.