YOUNG FARMERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24226, 19 February 1940, Page 13

YOUNG FARMERS

EDUCATION AND FINANCE ASSISTANCE PROPOSALS REPORT TO COLLEGE BOARD A suggestion that agricultural education be made more easily available, and that selected students with particular aptitude for farming should be assisted to acquire holdings of their own is contained in a report submitteo by Professor E. R. Hudson. Director of Canterbury Agricultural College, to the board of the college. The report, which was discussed at length in committee, was adopted unanimously, members expressing their entire agreement with the proposals it contained. • The scheme will be submitted to the Government, to the New Zealand School of Agriculture, and other authorities. “ For very many years to come agriculture will continue to be the economic mainstay of New Zealand.” the report states. “The maintenance of a high standard of attainment in agriculture and in all pertaining to rural life is consequently of national importance. The country should be farmed by men as technically efficient and culturally enlightened as possible. There are signs that agriculture as a career is not as popular as formerly. One of the main reasons for this is lack of finance on the part of many who would like to follow an active farming career. Experience Needed “ Considerable practical experience and maturity of judgment are essential in all cases of young men establishing themselves as farmers. A training involves considerable sacrifice. A student not only has to meet the actual cost of his course, but also has to forgo earnings he could derive from active farm work. In many instances he will decide against an agricultural training as being, in the short run, too costly. “The net result is that the young man often drifts into farming without adequate training and education (often with disastrous results): the State has a farmer who is generally considerably less efficient and enlightened than he might have been; and the college is maintained for the benefit of a small number of students when with very little additional expense, it could train many times the number

Bursaries Suggested

“It is suggested: (1) that a large number of bursaries be made available to young men who have had some farming experience and have demonstrated their fitness for an agricultural life. These bursaries should be of sufficient value to meet the cost of attendance at the college and to provide a small amount, say £ls or £2O per annum, for incidental expenses. “(2) That students , who completed a course of training and attained a high standard should then have the opportunity of gaining additional practical experience by serving for a period as farm workmen under competent farmers approved for the purpose, The duration of such ‘apprenticeshipwould depend upon the ability and maturity of the trainee, who would receive standard wages from the employer during the period. “(3) Trainees who were recommended by the college and also by the farmers approved under the scheme should then be assisted to establish themselves on farms. This might be done in various ways, but it is suggested that, in general through the State Advances Corporation such proved men should be granted financial assistance on a more liberal scale than would other's who had not undergone a period of training and given proof of their capacity to make good farmers. Inducement to Young Men

“The adoption of such a plan should offer an inducement to young men to take advantage of the training available and should ensure a constant supply of ■ competent and enlightened men to take up land The desirability of the scheme is enhanced by the existence of war. as under such condition? there is an inevitable decline in the standard of farming,”