The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1929 SUSPICION OF THE FARM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 810, 2 November 1929, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1929 SUSPICION OF THE FARM

ALTHOUGH it is only a few years since young New Zealanders were so enthusiastic about farming that some of them had to he forcibly restrained from endeavouring to g'o on the land with insufficient capital and lack of experience, the Hon. -E. Newman has determined that the distaste for farm life that our young men now evince is in reality attributable to % their love of sport and a good time generally. Apparently Mr. Newman, who laid the foundations of his own success at a time when sucli sections as. his fine place near Marton could be purchased and brought into profitable bearing at much less expense than land of a similar class today, considers that racing above ail things is the particular evil which is keeping young New Zealanders off the land. Perhaps the New Zealander’s enthusiasm for sport really is a factor, yet thinking people will be inclined to wonder if the real trouble just now is not the memory of some disastrous experiences suffered by young farmers in the last ten years. It is interesting to consider the change in public viewpoint concerning farmers and farming. In 1919, 1920, and those wonderful years when nearly every substantial farmer had his town house and led the way in the purchase-of new and expensive motor-cars, farming stood for everything that was good in life. It was only necessary to say that a man was a farmer and his status and wealtli were determined without further elaboration. If a man was so fortunate as to be a farmer, that was enough. There were no such things as impecunious farmers. Or if there were, the young men who were busily casting about for life opportunities did not hear of them. The occasional disasters that befel farmers were hidden from their view. All they saw was a parade of opulence, and when the wealthy and perhaps even a little ostentatious landowners started cutting up their properties, and selling them on a market that was then realising almost fabulous values, the young men went in and bought with courage and confidence. Of all the young New Zealanders who failed as a result of that campaign of buying at inflated prices, very few owed their subsequent downfall to sport. Once they realised that success on the land could not be achieved simply by being there, they demonstrated their readiness to work. No doubt some of the men who failed, and whose failure, along with the failure of many older and more experienced men, helped to bring farming under the suspicion in which it is undoubtedly held today, will gladly challenge Mr. Newman to show that any fondness for racing, golf, tennis, cricket or any other agreeable pastime contributed to their downfall. There are men within thirty miles of Auckland today whose purchase of their sections was the beginning of an intense struggle in which the young farmers were condemned to a harsh and toilsome routine in which there was simply no time for sport of any kind, even if there happened to be money left over for indulgence therein after the interest on the mortgages had been paid. If Mr. Newmjn is sincere in wanting to ascertain the reasons for the unpopularity of farming with young New Zealanders, he has no need to speculate about their love of sport of their lax fibre as compared with that of the English lads whom Mr. Newman’s organisation of sheepowners is bringing out to Flock House. He has no need to look further than the examples of the men who have failed since the war, or who, if they did not fail, have had hitter experiences in winning through to a sight of success. If in England there are hoys offering for the very creditable ideals of the Flock House organisation, it is partly because they come out here under such exceptionally favourable conditions, partly because economic prospects for young men in England are not altogether promising, and partly because they are blissfully unaware of the extremely uncertain and even ha ardous conditions under which farming has, for all hut established landowners, been prosecuted in New Zealand in the last six or seven years. Mr. Newman notices that hoys and girls sent out from England are more willing to take work in the backblocks. It happens that most if not all of those chosen under the Flock House scheme come from English seaport towns, from depressing places like South Shields, Hartlepool, and the like. If the youngsters from these and kindred towns show an eagerness to test the strange attractions of rural life, their innocent preference should hardly cause surprise. On the other hand, few young New Zealanders find anything really novel about country life. But it is not through that in particular that either the boys or the girls are at present seeking city occupations. They do not hold rustic charms in suspicion because there is no sport to be obtained there. Experience has shown that the boy who is keen about sport will get as much of it in the country as in the town; and New Zealand girls have shown in the severest tests of loyalty that they make good helpmeets on the farm. The pendulum wiil swing again toward rural prosperity. The strength of its oscillation is apparent even now. And then young New Zealand will turn again to farming, to the pleasant and agreeable occupation of winning milk cheques and wool cheques—with perhaps an investment in a racehorse as tbe ultimate mark of success.