THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. Saturday, March 5, 1910 TOWN LADS FOR COUNTRY LIFE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 239, 5 March 1910, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. Saturday, March 5, 1910 TOWN LADS FOR COUNTRY LIFE.

A WRITER in the Lyttelton Times, in the course of a series of articles dealing with the problem of finding suitable work for the growing masses gf unemployed in the large cities at Home, giyes a list of lads, aged from 16 to 20, wboifthe describes as ptted for work in the country distripts pf New Zealand and other colonieg. Th e problem of securing efficient adult labour in the backblocks and even near country towns, is ever acute with the employer, be he farmer, settler, contractor, builder, or one requiring the services of men in any capacity. The average townsman above 30 years o£ age is unable to adapt hims#f to the simplicities of a country life. He breads tije solitude, and what he terms, the monotony pf living jn a place where the mtssie hall and the giifter of city life do not exist. But young lads, much as they are attracted by the glamour of towns, are adaptable, and given the desire on their part to settle down in the country, they would Beein to be the best available material for building .up our country population. All the lads given in the iig'p referred to Jiye ; i.ri tfre East pf Jjonfrm & every specially wsiwi tfcai JJjpy nausjt fre prepared to adapt the comparative quietness of life in the country, shP&ipj they be selected to send out to New Zealand Q? They reqognise this, and gs they are all strong sind healthy, undjiccustpmed to manual in vsj ~' r

they seem to be the very kind of immigrants this country of ours is most particularly in need of. Though life in the country is quiet, it need not be monotonous to the thinking mind, and just as the making of good roads goes on, side by side with an extension of our railway facilities, will the hardships our settlers suffer from be lightened, and the difficulty in retaining the laborers be reduced. It is not that a fair rate of wages is not paid, nor that reasonable hours are not adhered to. It is rather the lack of adequate communication between town and country that forms the staple grievance of most of our settlers and their men. And this brings us in a vexed circle back to the starting point. The country requires population. The gain last year from emigration was under 5000. These emigrants may, many of them, intend to settle in the country. But large areas of land are apparently barred from occupation, and even when opened for settlement may have no roads giving proper access, and lie far from such railways as exist. Roads, more roads, and again better roads; an extension of railways to meet every reasonable need; and we shall not find the same difficulty in the future as to-day: of a country gasping for occupation, population and exploitation, and unable to get any one of these through lack of proper means of access and methods of reaching it.