CAREERS ON THE LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 894, 11 February 1930, Page 10

CAREERS ON THE LAND

PLEASANT and plausible theories were allowed to over-ride cold facts in Christchurch yesterday when the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. Atmore, agreed to a plan by which a farm school for city youths will be established in Canterbury, apparently under the auspices of the Technical College Board of Governors. Mr. Atmore promised the hoard that the Government would grant & 4,000 of the necessary £B,OOO, limiting his comment to a breezy observation that “the facts spoke for themselves,” and a short discourse on the advantages of a back-to-the-land campaign as an almost complete solution of the unemployment problem. It is true that the facts speak for themselves, hut not quite in the way the Minister of Education would have his hearers believe. The facts indicate with increasing clarity that, under present conditions, careers on the land offer rosy futures to comparatively few young New Zealanders, and that the opportunities for hoys who wish to secure more valuable recompense for the rigors of country life than the privilege of becoming farm labourers are by no means unlimited. It is true that from the standpoint of education the scheme is a more or less sound and progressive one. The chairman of the board has asserted with obvious wisdom that, in an industrial area, proper training for hoys who are considering going on the land is an impossibility, and he claims, in effect, that Lincoln College is unable to cope with the demand for agricultural experience and apprenticeship. He cannot reasonably suggest, however, that the promised farm school at a cost of £B,OOO is to be ranked in competition with Lincoln College with its specialised courses of preparation; rather will the school offer a preparatory training in general farm work. It is in this definite difference that the weakness of the proposal lies, and neither the board nor Mr. Atmore has attempted to extend vision beyond the confines of the school course.

It is pertinent to ask if the Government, after assisting boys to secure this agricultural school training, intends to assist them in making practical use of their knowledge in promising directions. If, ultimately, they are to he placed on the land, where and on what terms will they be accommodated? Unless Mr. Atmore has in mind some yet undisclosed scheme, and the Government is prepared to introduce a system akin to that in force in Canada, where land is provided for trained boys at a reasonable rate, the proposal leads nowhere beyond the neat acres of the school’s experimental plots. Meanwhile, the established departments of technical colleges throughout New Zealand continue to send forth well equipped lads to play their part in the country’s manufacturing industries. A freedom for expansion that will enable the absorbtion of this youthful army and provide room for many more to follow is the practical and urgent need in the Dominion today.