BOYS AND THE LAND.

Wairarapa Age, 8 March 1927, Page 5

BOYS AND THE LAND.

THE DRIFT TO THE TOWNS.

PROSPECTS DISCUSSED. DIVERSE VIEWS OF ROTARIANS. Masterton Rotarians, at their [ weekly luncheon yesterday, discussed tho question of inducing and assisting educated youths to take up farming as an occupation. It was argued on one side that the prospects were poor unless substantial capital was available, while a farmer member held strongly to the view that energy and thrift were the essential factors to success.

The question was raised by President G. H. Uttley who asked, at the conclusion of an address on the farming industry generally by Rotarian A. H. Falloon, what were the prospects for any boy, with a fair education and able to view things in a scientific way, taking up farming. Much had been heard, of the drift to the towns and aities, but as a schoolmaster he was somewhat at a loss in advising parents regarding the career on the land for their sons.

Rotarian J. Caselberg considered that the prospects were very poor. There was no inducement for a father, working for a salary, to send his boy farming unless, after five years of training as a cadet on a farm, sub* stantial capital could be found to give the boy his start. After a thorough training on the farm, say for five or six years, the boy's services on the open market were worth from £2 to £3 according to the present rate of wages, whereas had he gone to work in any town occupation he would be capable at the end of the same period of earning from £5 to £6 per .week. Rotarian A. H. Falloon differed from the previous speaker, stating that energy and thrift were the essential factors towards success for any young farmer. The trouble with the average New Zealander, he said, was that he was brought up to a high standard of living. A man in the country was far better off at £l5O a year than the city worker was at £3OO, providing that he had the power to save his money and spend it only on the things that mattered. From what he could see, the New Zealander was too fond of spending his money on the things which did not connt. He instanced the case of a Falkland Islander who took a position locally. After a few years of industrious living this man had saved his money, and all the while Was content with his lot. He was followed in his position by a New Zealander who had the same number of a family to keep, but who was discontented with the wages and saved nothing but spent his money on luxuries as quickly as it was earned. The prospects of New Zealand farming industry depended mainly on the purchasing power of the Mother Country, but much could be done to help the prosperity of the Dominion by energy and thrift. He believed that tho time would come when no farmer would be allowed to hold more than 5000 acres. Such closer settlement would go a long way towards solving the problem of helping young men on to tho land.