BOYS ON THE LAND.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 299, 1 August 1929, Page 1

BOYS ON THE LAND.

SCHEME PROPOSED. Work on Pumice Lands. Farmers Consider. The problem of the settlement of hoys upon farms was considered at the New Zealand Farmers’ Union Conference, when a comprehensive scheme was placed before the conference by the secretary (Mr. J. Pow). He pointed but that whatever the number of boys absorbed might be, ht it was considered that only 50 per cent would make good, and would eventually obtain farms of their own. Owing to want of ambition and grit it had been estimated that ‘>o per cent would remain as farm labourers -whilst the- remaining 20 per cent -would drift back to the towns. The Main Phases. The three main phases of the scheme were: (1) A probationary V period of, say, three months; (2) a training period of, say, three years, with private farmers, or two years on a training farm such as Penrose; (3) a developmental period of, say, five or six years on the pumice lands of the Taupo district, or on the gum

lands of Auckland Peninsula. ’From an economic and- training point of view, the union should recommend the Department of Agriculture to run the returned soldiers’ training farm at Penrose as a training farm for boys. Twenty-five boys could be trained at the same time, and as there was a lot of equipment, implements, etc., there now, and not in use, the running expenses would not be heavy. The boys could tjkhe specially selected and trained for at least two years on the farm in all phases of farming. Those boys who survived the probationary period with i private farmers would be expected to -'continue their training or apprenticeship period of three years with their original employers. He suggested that (a) boys should receive 10s a week for the first year and wages commensurate with their ability for the remaining two years; and (b) half of the wages be paid into the P. 0.5.8. by the farmer on behalf of the boy, who should not have power to operate on his account until 21. Every boy should have the right of appeal to the provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union in the district in which he , ' works for redress concerning wages, conditions, etc. Final Objective. “ The final objective of the scheme is to ■ place all trainees, who are still determined to go on the land, on the pumice lands of the thermal district around Taupo for special training before talcing over farms of their own or on the gum lands in Auckland Peninsula,” he said. “ The main essentials for tackling the development of such lands are (1) youth; (2) experience in the farming of such lands; and (3) special finan- • cial concessions. From inquiries made it is apparent that five or six years will be needed to convert the rough scrub country in the Taupo district and the best of the gum lands into well-grassed fields. Farmers in the Taupo district state that the Ti Rohanga and the Ti Hoi blocks contain at least 200,000 acres of ploughable land which for 50 years have carried sheep and cattle. To-day is the day of economic mass production, etc., and the union suggests that the development of the pumice lands and gum lands should be undertaken on a big scale by the Department of Agriculture or by the Lands Department.

“ Suppose the Department of Agriculture undertook in the first place to break up 5000 acres of the best land in the Taupo district. The work on the block should be done by boys who had three years’ training and who were desirous of developing this class of land for a future home. It is more than probable that the breaking in of the first block would f have to be done by contract, as boys would not be available. Thereafter ' it would be essential to have the breaking In, grassing, etc., done by Jhp boys themselves. During the

period of development each boy would receive weekly wages from the Department for his work, but half would be handed in the P. 0.5.8. for him, and the Department would receive the proceeds of production. It has been estimated that after three or four years the block would be self-supporting. the whole block would be run as a going concern by the Department under a competent supervisor, until it was considered capable of providing a living for the boys running it. When this stage was reached, the block would be cut up into farms and ballotted for by the boys who had worked it. The Economic Farm. “ Inquiries made from several sources show that provided the grassing had been successful the most economic farm would be one of 10G acres. Improved grassing in the J pumice area has raised the butter-fat production from 60-701 b per acre to 1501 b. Assuming that 80 acres are set aside for dairying, the total but-ter-fat yield at 1501 b per acre'would be 12,0001 b, which at Is 6d would 1 amount to £9OO. With the addition of proceeds from sale of pigs and potatoes the annual revenue could easily attain £IOOO. “ The main items of annual expenditure would be: Manures £IOO, or £1 per acre; labour (a boy), say, £100; interest, £120; and general maintenance £150; a total of about £470. From these figures it is seen (somewhat roughly) that a fair liv- j mg could be made, provided present pi'.ces keep up. From an economic point of view it is highly desirable to have two farms of 100 acres well farmed than one of 200 acres indif- i reiently farmed. i

Finance. “ In the first place the Lands Department would have to assess the land at nil, and the expenditure per acre carefully noted until it was handed over to the boys. The expense of development per acre less adjustments for proceeds from sale of produce during the period would form the selling price to the boys. Experienced farmers in the Taupo district state that it would cost about £6 to £lO per acre to make this land self-supporting, but under mass development this would be considerably reduced. “ As a special incentive for boys to develop this class of country, provision should be made for them to:— (a) Receive advances up to £750 for buildings, stock, etc., as was done under the D.S.S. system; (b) pay off his place on a long-term mortgage of, say, 20 years. He would then become the owner at the age of 43-45, and his annual repayments to the Department would not be too much of a load. After the first block of 5000 acres had been roughly broken in, another block could be taken in hand the next year, and so on, so that the different stages of development would be going on simultaneously. With the exception perhaps of the first block, or perhaps part of it, the whole of the development work should be done by the boys who would afterwards have fai'ms in the block. Development of the gum lands, on a smaller scale perhaps, could also be undertaken simultaneously with the development of the pumice lands, as farmers in Auckland Peninsula state that with scientific treatment these gum lands could be made highly productive. Figures in Support. “ The following facts have been extracted from letters received from farmers in the pumice land area: (1) ‘A ’ farms 254 acres of what he terms fair second-class land. During the 1926-27 season his farm produced 27,1561 b of butter-fat, valued at £1940 10s 7d, and pigs valued at £lB9 were sold, fchus providing him with a revenue of over £2OOO. (21 ‘B’ took £305 worth of potatoes off three acres of land and after deducting £BS as the value of the seed. He dug 46 tons of prime ' potatoes from the three acres. This same farmer grew over 56 tons of swedes to the acre. He wrote: ■ I have farmed in Canterbury, Marlborough and Taranaki, and I do not hesitate to say that with the exception of a few small areas, none of these places can compare in growing root crops of all sorts.’

“ About 30 per cent of the hoys would never rise ahove the level of farm labourers. If the Land's Department could ahsorb a number of these and form them into working gangs much of the reverted lands could be regained and placed on the market without loss to the Department.”

The conference decided to send the proposals to the Department of Agriculture.—Wellington Post.