A SETTLEMENT EXAMPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 106, 7 May 1934, Page 8

A SETTLEMENT EXAMPLE

Twenty old boys of Flock House, with the assistance of • the trustees, have bought a property of about 2300 acres which they propose to divide into twenty farms. This is an example of what may be clone in farm-training and settlement. It can be said quite truly that the conditions are not the same as would apply to group settlement on a large scale by the Government. Flock House | boys are ■ carefully selected at the start. They have a short but intensive initial training in farm life, and in that time- they -learn to work together. ■ The team spirit of Flock House- is one of the remarkable features of the training. Also the boys are taught at Flock House and afterwards to save so that they may become independent farmers. Twenty selected young men who have had this experience are certain to do well in a group. Moreover, they have the advice of experienced trustees, who are intensely interested in Flock House, in v the purchase of land and stock, and the arrangement of finance. But, though New Zealand cannot expect to reproduce these favourable conditions by taking groups of would-be settlers at random, there is little doubt that careful choice of applicants, having regard to their ability to work together, and good land-buying will present opportunities for placing suitable men on suitable land. The settlement may not be as extensive as if rough-and-ready methods were followed, but llicrc is every prospect of its proving 100 per cent, successful. The final test of a settlement scheme is how many settlers stay settled.