JUNIOR FARMER SCHEME

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 47, 27 March 1930, Page 13

JUNIOR FARMER SCHEME

NOT WELL KNOWN YET. . ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANT- ; AGES DISOUSSED. Last Decemher the announcement was made that the .Government had decided to institute a junior farmer scheme on lines similiar to those formerly used in conneetion with puhlic-school emigration. Because of its close assoeiation with the latter scheme, the lmmigration Department was piaced in charge of the new scheme, which however does not as yet seem well known to farmers, judgiug hy the support it is receiving. Actually it offers fai'mers labour under satisfacsory conditions, and with definit© knowledge of wages, pro,vided they are willing to undertake instruction and to give the boys a fair chance. The real weakness of the present scheme lies in the inability of those in charge to tell the hoys definitely that certain opportunity to take up land on favourable terms, awajts them on completion of their training. The capital cost of land is now so high, and the opportimities of saving lrom farm wages so small, that boys hesitate to take up farming, and we have the "drift to the towns" about which so much is heard. The writer lcnows of cases where hoys who wanted to take up farming, have gone to the city and worked at good wages for so'me years, saving the needed moiiey to start on their own in the country, much more quickly than. they could have done had they taken johs on farms. VTIAT FARMING OEFERS. Farming to-day still offers greater freedom, and. greater satisfaction than. the .majority of city occupations. The farmer must work hard and has a. lifelong hattle with the elements, but his time is his own, and prOvided he has bought right, he has a ceream independence aa the result of his work. Very few farmers would change places with city workers, even thongh they may grouse about long hours and hard work; they realise that their work is caried on outdoors and that that alone compensates for a great many of the trials of farming. _ The new scheme is designed_ to give boys a satisfactory training in farm work, under decent conditions, and farmers are expected to treat the hoys properly and to house them well. If. tliey cannot do so; they have no right to expect to retain clecent help. Much of the accommodatibn on _ farms is deplorahly poor, and this . applies equally as well to , the • large station as to the small' farm. _ Some of the poorest seen hy the writer is on _ a station owned by a member of Parliament, and it is by no. means a small station. Farmers have m> right | toexpect hoys to sleep and practically live in disused stables, dilapidated whares etc, but that is what is expected in many cases. It is fust as well to> speak plainly, and the fact remains that a hetter class of accommodation is needed for farm help, if the best class of boy is to he attracted Presnmahly, under this new _ scheme-, 'Some supervision is to be given the ihousing question.'

i LATER OPFORTUNEEIES. • Given the- thorough training whiqh : tliis scheme presupposes, tne hoy, ialter a few years' experience, is reacly jto take. up land on, his own account. | What land will be availabie, and on ;what terms P In the case of the pub;lio schoolboys who were brought out ifrom England, the statement was made ;that land will be availabie on easy i terms, but no subh land is- to-day ready ifor them. Now we have tlie same ! statepient mad© in conneetion with the : present scheme. i Is any special pro-; vision heing made to have this land availabie? , This is a politics! ques:tion only insofar as land settlement is ' a matter for. the Government. _ P^eivions ad'ministratfons have- failed to find a solution of the problem, and the question is so big — and tlie successful ' solution so important to "the country — that a conference embracing all shades of political opinion, and including the best hrains of the farming community seems necessary. The truth is that_ we have no fixed land settlement poliey _ in New Zealand,," but that_ we drift along, year after year. loolting for hetter tliings in : the future. Recently we have seen the purchase of estates, and their snhdivision for dairying, hut the land has i heen so dear when finally made availabie tq settlers that they will liave but 'modest opportunities in the farming . field. i Other countries have tackl'ed this | question saccessfully. Denmark, dur- • ing, the last fifty yearg, has grovvn Sfrom a land df comparatxvely i'arg© esjtates to a country wher© every inch of f tlie- land ig made to yieid its inaximum : production, and, thanns to Government j assistanee, wouid-ue settlers tnere are heiped on 'tq phe land and nursed over : tne nrsp iew years. Gur poliey,, un- ' lortunateiy — an«i this is true oi au'past i Governments — nas heen to assisc ruen on to the land; aua xeuve tiiem 'there. The result aimost mvariably has been that they have had iiard struggles for some seasons, but in many cases,. tnanks to a period: of insing values for produce, have won through. Rather the reverse has held goocl during recept years, and we have seen the wip-mg-oif of hnge sums frorn the capital cost of soldiers' farms. ' It seems. to. the writer, that New Zealand to-uay is at the turning of the" ways. We have now to deeide whetlier the country is to be developed along intensive iines, giving great opportunities for many thousands more farmers, or whether we intend drifting along as we have done for so long., There was a tirne, not so verv long. ago, when the lUO-acre dairy farm was looked upon as the minimum for a pi*ofitable living. We have seen that idea go by the board, and to-day tlie 50-acre farm, worked hy' one man in many cases,. is regarcled as a very good proposition. JLn the Waikato there are hxmdreds of such farms giving wonderful production ahd a good living to their owners. Now we are just at a new &tage of intensive farming, with the use of nitrpgenous jhanures ofi'ering further possihilities in . the way of increased production. They are on their trial here, hut it may well |?e that within the next ten years their use Will -mahe 25 acres yield as mneh as the? average 50-acre farm, and thus help its solve our land problem. What we need _ mere than ' anythlng elsei thotigh, is a construetive poliey of development, and that can be achieved only' if the yery best brains'of farming interests 'get together and assist in framing it, irrespective of political he liefs. ' ' " . ■