FARMING FOR BOYS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1929, Page 7

FARMING FOR BOYS

For a long while it has struck New Zealanders :is an anomaly that in their own country native-born'Jads were given fewer facilities for farm training •than boys from England. It is not that objection lias been taken to the admirable work done at Flock House, or to the training uf boys from the English public schools, but that it has been concerned that New Zealand hoys shoul have equal opportunities. Early in the year a scheme of farm aprenticeship and education and settlement of lads, specially designed to encourage hoys t ogo on the land, was drawn up by the Under-Secretary for Labour and the Dominion secretary of the Farmers’ Union, and no doubt this the basis of the scheme that the Government an-

nounced yesterday?- According to this plan, the published details of which are meagre, boys may be. indentured, they will be guarantted a minimum graduated wage ,and when they are trained it will be possible for them to take up land under the Government’s new legis latiou. This is the bare outline of a very promising policy, which really should have been put into effect some time ago. Launched simultaneously with the now Land Hill, this plan is welcome proof that our land policy is no longer fettered by the gospel cif impotence and despair.