TRAINING BOYS AS FARMERS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1930, Page 2

TRAINING BOYS AS FARMERS

GOVERNMENMENT’S SCHEME

DISAPPOINTING RESPONSE UP TO PRESENT TIME.

WELLINGTON, Jan. 3

The foundation lias been laid and the initial work put in hand in connection with the scheme outlined by the Prime Minister some weeks ago for training New Zealand boys as iuim

The project was put forward by bar .Joseph Ward as an adjunct to the Government’s land settlement piopos-

„ls, and it is hoped tilt it will have the co-operation of farmers and parents of la'ds whose inclinations are to follow farming pursuits. All the branches of the Fanners’ Union throughout the Dominion have been •ircularised, pointing out the conditions under which boys will be accepted and soliciting applications from both farmers and boys.

Some six weeks have elapsed since this preliminary step was taken, and up to the present the response has been disappointing. The Department o'f Immigration, which has been chosen to administer the scheme, in view of its previous experience in connection with public school boys arriving in the Dominion to settle on the land, hopes that tthe merest of farmers, parents and boys will be evidenced by a fillip in the number of applications received during the opening weeks of the new year. The guiding principles laid down by the Department for the control of the scheme are simple and direct. Doys must be of good character and physique, and will be allotted by the Department to approved farmers for employment under three main conditions. In the first place the boys, who will not be under fifteen years of age, will remain under the nominal control of the Department until tber have attained their majority. A lad is expected to remain for at least two years with bis first employer, and he must clothe himself. Transfer from one employer to another will not be allowed without the consent o'f the Department. If a hoy proces unsatisfactory or unsuitable for the work the farmer will be required first of all to report the case to the Department, in order that arrangements may he made for a transfer, 'flie farmer will not be permitted to dismiss his charge without the Department’s consent.

The second conditions relates to wages. Apart from the provision of clothing the boy is to be kept and housed by the farmer and paid not less than 10s a week for the first six months, and not less than 15s a Week for the second six months, with periodical increases thereafter in accordance with his increasing value to his employer. The third main essential of the scheme is that the lads will not he indentured, unless by mutual agreement between the farmer and the parents, for a period of six months’ employment as was done in the settlement of boys from abroad. Lads assisted under the present scheme will be required to furnish the Department direct with monthly progress reports and employers in their turn will be expected to render an account quarterly to the Department as to the progress being made. Employers may, however, at any time submit confidential reports. The housing of the hoys is desired, wherever possible, to be apart from ordinary farm hands; in other words they are to be given the benefits of association with the homestead. No special insurance scheme is being provided For in respect to the boys, but every employer will be liable for bis charge, of course, under the Workers’ Compensation Act. Farmers who have had experience of the English public school boys speak highly of the success of that scheme, and it remains to be seen whether a similar scheme can be applied to New Zealand-trained hoys.