WHY BOYS LEAVE HOME
Sir,-Your article "Why Boys Leave Home" prompts me to answer, Do you want them kept in apron. strings? Further, do you want New Zealand kept in apron strings? I am not anxious to ste more than one or two large towns» developing in New Zealand. I, have lived in England where one seldom gets out of a large town without queuing among the thousands. But I am anxious to hear of healthy small town life where the farmer’s sons and daughters can go and try whether there is anything better than farming. Some education; some evening classes or technical demonstrations (ranging from time to time from dressmaking to how to construct a wind pump); some dancing, amusement = fun. Let me say this to the farmer. Don’t make the miner a pariah; don’t let him make you one. Go yourself, and your wife too. Insist on your shopping requirements being considered and your votes about the new road counted. There is a local market developing there for some of your produce; a suburban middle class likely to grow’ up With whose children your sons and daughters like to mix. Teach the miner to value your peaches*and mutton as well as your milk and butter and there will be money to pay for extra help for your Wife or you — a little easing of the wheels of work. Be there in time; if you don’t watch out the miners’ wives won’t cook or darn or keep a pig and your pockets will be emptied to keep him out of the gutter in hard times, You don’t really like being lonely. He doesn’t want to miss all the good things you ve got. England didn’t try in time. It is not too late for New Zealand to win culture for agriculture, greenness and dignity for her small towns. Then your grandchildren will have a fair chance.
A.M.
G.
(Dunedin).
(We refer to this letter in our leading article.-Ed. )
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19490318.2.14.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 5
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329WHY BOYS LEAVE HOME New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 5
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