HELP ON THE FARMS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 251, 24 October 1942, Page 4

HELP ON THE FARMS

SECONDARY SCHOOLBOYS. SCHEME FOR HOLIDAYS Because oi' the acute shoi'tage of farm la-bour, a special effort is being made this year to interest secondary schoolboys of 14 years or more in taking farm employment during their summer holida-ys. Thei scheme was outlined this week by the secre-t-ary of the Government Youth C'entre in Wellington, Mr S. H. Peter - sen. During the last two years, he said, iniany hundreds of boys had been sent to farmers and the arrangement- had, in most ca-ses, p-roved most satisf actory both to them and to- their employers. Ofteri boys, after being employed a first time, had returned to- t-he same farm on sub-se-quent holidays, not only at Christmas- but- also at the end of term The boys worked well, many of them, in fact, being strong and exoeptionally fit young men of 17 to 18 years. Special eare was t-aken to see that conditions on the farms were' su.itable. Farmers were . informed that bovs1-, particularly if under 16 years of age', should preferably live and have their meals with the1 family. If they lived a-part. their accoinmodation should be comparable with that of the family, with access to the same or similar toilet and ibiath facilities. In no circumstances should they be required to have their mea-ls or spend their evenings1 alone. It was Stipulated that their work must be reasonably congenial, not- just the work the farmer did not ca-re to tackle himself, and that it must be reasonably suit-ed to their p-hysique a-nd age. It could include such work as general farm work, haymaking harvesting, linen fiax ha-rvesting, market gardening and t-omato growing, fruit picking, grading and packing.

Not lessi than award Ava-ges must be p-aid, thoiigh it was- thought that some farmers might ofier more. For sheep and dairy-farm hands the award, plus keep- in all cases, was: Under 17, £1 2s; 17 to 18 £1 9s; 18 to 19 £1 16s. The farmer must refund the youth's retum transport to the farm if he sta-yed a month or more. For the suecess of the scheme it was necessary that farmers shoiuld make known their requirements -before the end of the school term, said Mr Petersen,. Primary Production Councils- were- being asked this year to- see that the applications were lodged in time and that the conditions on, the farms were suitable. Farmers intcrested in the scheme were to be given application forms which were to be filled in by them a-nd sent to the Primary Production Co-uncil. The council would a-dd it-s comment on the farm c-ondit-ionsi and forward the applications to the local district manpower offieer by November 28, If he was unable to fili a vacanc.y from suitable schoolbov labour available in his own district, he would send t-he application to t-he secretary of the nearest Government Youth Centre in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin, whc- would then negotiate directly with the farmer concerned. Applications should reach youth centres not later than Dccember 5. Mr Petersen said that 165 scholars from Wellington and Hut-t Va-lley secondary a-nd technical schools had already indicated that they would be available for farm labour during the summer holidays.