YOUTHS FOR FARMS

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20253, 23 July 1937, Page 6

YOUTHS FOR FARMS

SUBSIDIES APPROVED. •r ■ STATUTORY REMUNERATION, TRAINING IN AGRICULTURE. The Government has approved the Farmers’ Union proposal for the payment of a subsidy to enable farmers to employ eligible young men between the ages of 18 and 25 years who are now on sustenance. The acting-Minlster of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, has announced that over a period of six months farmers employing these men will be relm--1 bursed to the extent of the sustenance allowance otherwise payable, but that the subsidy wll not be allowed to any farmer who is considered to have dlspensed with regular farm labour to take advantage, of the plan. A strict condition will be that statutory remuneration must be given and that reasonable living conditions and opportunity for practical training is provided. lOn the completion of the sixmonthly engagement the farmer will be expected to supply a certificate showing the range of the duties performed by the worker, and the manner in which they have been carried out. When the scheme was under consideration it was stated that the men would receive £1 a week as sustenance from the Government, and the farmer employers would pay them an adiitional £1 2s 6d. Designed to meet the aoute shortage of farm labour, the proposal was suggested to the Farmers’ Union at Its annual conference In Wellington on July 15 by Mr D. B. Higgins, of Matamata, who said that there were on sustenance in Auckland hundreds of men suitable for farm work. A committee was appointed to place the proposal before the Government. The following day Mr Higgins reported that the plan had been approved by Mr J. S. Hunter, Under-Secretary for Labour. COBT OF APPRENTIOEB. POSSIBILITY OF SUBSIDY. (By Telegraph.—press Association.) GISBORNE, Thursday. The possibility that in addition to its decision to make a subsidy available to allow young men to’ go on iarms the Government may also subsidise the employment of apprentices was mentioned by the acting-Minlster of Labour, the Hon. P. G. Webb, when speaking at Ruatoria. Mr Webb said that in 1928 there were 10,000 apprentices in New Zealand, but by 1933 they had been reduced to 3000. The number had been Increased now to over 6000. "We are evolving a scheme,” he said, *’to make provision for boys to learn trades and farming, and hope In the next few months to enable a boy to learn any trade he desires, and tlie country will have to face up to the cost.” END OF SUSTENANCE. MINISTER’S CRITICISM. RUATORIA, Thursday. The Hon. P. C. Webb, acting-Mlnls-ter of Labour, speaking at Ruatoria (East Coast), criticised the sustenance system and stated that as the result of efforts to put the men Into productive work it was hoped soon to end the system which was demoralising and had a psychological reflex. People who paid money into the funds found themselves thinking they were paying to keep men who would Dot work.