THE BOYS' COUNTRY WORK SOCIETY.
To THE EDITOR OD THE " SPECTATOR...3
Sin,—About eighteen months ago you were kind enough to insert a letter about the Boys' Country Work Society from Miss Iles, its Honorary Secretary. Since then the Society has made such steady progress and the outlook is so promising that I venture to bring it before you again in the hope that it may receive increased support,. As Miss Iles pointed out, some 80 per cent. of boys on leaving school take to unskilled employment, and many of them are handi- capped from the start by home surroundings. Before long they fall out of the running and frequently sink to the level of the "unemployable." It was to give these "blind alley boys" a chance that the Society was started some five years ago, its object being to place them with farmers in England and Wales, where they might learn the routine of country work, and so have tha chance of securing regular employment.
Critics of the scheme have urged that a farm labourer's wage is low. This may bo true, but, on the other hand, the life is healthy and tho work is constant and not casual. Whilst for those who may wish to better themselves it may, and indeed does, lead, with the improvement of physique, direct to the Navy or to successful emigration to our colonies. The Society, which keeps in touch with the boys up to the age of eighteen and longer, sends them to parts of the country only where boy labour is in demand, and insists that when the newcomer knows his work he is to receive the wages current in his district.
Beginning with the placing of one lad in 1905, the Society has found places for more boys each year till, in 1910, the number provided for was 162, making a total to date of 492 boys. Whether those selected for places in the country will settle down to the work and do well is not easy to judge, but, so far as our experience goes, some two-thirds may be expected to do so.
Each boy requires a country outfit and his fare, should the farmer not advance it. This means a cost of about £2 to £3 per boy, which is generally defrayed by those interested in him.
Hitherto the Society has been run almost entirely by voluntary workers. These are redoubling their efforts to keep pace with their own success. But in spite of their unselfish devotion and the utmost economy the Society finds itself faced with the in- creased expenditure which is inseparable from a growing work.
Some short time ago Sir Herbert Raphael, M.P., offered £25 towards a total amount of £200, which would enable the Society to have its headquarters in London and to employ a paid secre- tary. The offer was conditional on the balance being raised. We have now four other offers of £25 and two lesser gifts, leaving a balance of £60 to be raised. If some of your readers would help in this they would be assisting a Society which can claim honestly to be doing a little towards checking the present terrible waste of boy life. In the absence in India of our Chairman, Lord Shaftesbury, and . of our Treasurer, the Hon. Venetia Baring, cheques may be sent to myself at 25 Kensington Gore, S.W., or to the account of the Bays' Country Work Society at the London County and West- minster Bank, St. James's Street, S.W.—I am, Sir, Scc.,
ROBERT Yeneunau..
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