i
No. M-118 Copy No. of
STUDIES OF MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
Memorandum Series
I',
J! Subject: Fairbridge Farm Schools in Canada and Australia
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Date: July 13, 1944
t:
I Study Room 115 Library of Congress Annex Washington, D. c.
Tel . Republic 5127 July 13, 1944
FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOLS IN CANADA
The attached Report on the Fairbridge Farm ' Schools, which were founded at Oxford University
in 1909 by Kingsley Fairbridge, has been selected
by the Staff of 11 M11 Project for inclusion in our Series.
co E I
Boys entrusted with the real job at Northcote Children's Farm, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOLS Thirty-first Year ·
Fairbridge children who enjoyed the bounteous hospitality of the Canadian Pacific M erchant S eamen on the voyage to Australia in S eptember, 1940. To all friends of Fairbridge If it had been possible to hold the usual Annual General Meeting, when hundreds of our subscribers and friends assemble, we should have asked Major-General Victor Odlum to speak to you. He has, however, very kindly written his message and we are happy to print it. But before I give . you his words, I must set down here some remarks on our work, its present state and its prospects. CHA R LES HAM B RO, Chairman. " Dining in Hall" at the Babies' Home.
T is with very great regret that this year we some new friends. We have further been sustained cannot issue the Annual Report in its usual by the signing of Deeds of Covenant by an in Iform. The customary edition requires much creasing number of our regular subscribers. With more paper than we should be justified in using at Income Tax at its present rate, we are able to this time. It has also been necessary to make an recover from Inland Revenue a sum equal in each economy in the printing of illustrations. In case to that subscribed under Covenant. For happier times we shall be able to show in a publica these acts of faith and generosity we record a very tion and in a film, I hope, the story of how the urgent gratitude. Farm Schools have fared during the period of the The knowledge that the sea routes were closed war and how they have been kept up to standard has led to the impression that the work of the in spite of the handicaps of declining funds and, Society must lapse until, the war over, it could in spite, too, of the problems of keeping open the resume the sending of children overseas. But the lines of communication between headquarters and interruption of sailings only has the effect of the respective Farm Schools. increasing the task. The Farm Schools must be The last twelve months have shown that sub kept up to standard : there cannot be any pause in scribers have shared the anxieties of the Chairman the care of a child. That is on the one side. On and the Committee : the raising of adequate funds the other, the Society would be falling short of its must, inevitably, be a much tougher problem when supreme purposeifitwereatanytime to refuse to take taxation reaches the figure it is to-day. Some of responsibility for the protection and maintenance our faithful supporters have now no margin of of any child who can make a claim on Fairbridge income from which to make an allocation for hospitality. This means that, although we could Fairbridge. The loss is severe, but they remain n.ot for several months send any children to staunch friends, and we know that they will lose no Australia or Canada, we still kept the door open opportunity to plead our cause with those who can and provided in this country as many as possible · still give from their present resources. Never of Farm School benefits for such children. Our theless, even in these hard times, we have found subscribers and all friends of Fairbridge should 4 Fairbridge is now accepting the care of very small children. Pictures from the Babies' H ome built by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Cadbury at Selly Oak, near Birmingham. The nursery school stage is spent here.
have in mind that not only have they kept alive Mr. Plenderleith and his staff there for such f our Farm Schools, but they have also helped to effective care of our wards. Do we look for health? provide the means of giving Fairbridge shelter to All wisdom and all vigilance is given to it. Do we a hundred children in this country. look for sweetness and joy in play and in work ? Somerset and Shropshire and Stirling have had They are there for all to see. These qualities are the care of these Fairbridgians. The Middlemore shown in a bright light in the remarks of a padre Homes of Selly Oak have fostered the greater who lately took a party of these children to Canada. number of them. We owe an incalculable debt to He writes that he and his colleagues were 5 Pasture and Orchard at Fintry Fairbridge Training Farm on Lake Okanagan, B ritish Columbia. congratulated ;by passengers and crew on the charm from the perplexities they do not deserve." We and excellent behaviour of the children. They offer you this woman's gratitude : it should reach had no fears or distresses and were well able to you because you have sponsored these children enjoy a very interesting trip in fair weather across with the funds you have given us. We, in the North Atlantic. our turn, record our debt to the Whinwell And I am anxious to record the help given to us Children's Home and to Miss Paterson who is by the Whinwell Children's Home in Stirling. the Matron. Several vacancies in the Home were offered to our This is an attempt to give you some indication children until they can set out for Australia or of how Fairbridge has braced and adapted itself to Canada. We have to confess that, for a very small the conditions imposed on it by the war. Its charge to us, the children have had genuine mission and its bounden duty must be acquitted in Scottish hospitality. Among them were three full, however severe the obstacles. We are pledged little girls of one family. The mother of these to the children : they are aware that their security children saved enough from her war earnings to go rests with us. This security must be a much and see them. She had not imagined that any larger cover than one which just shields them from woman other than herself could give to her children the immediate perils of the war : it must saturate such devoted shepherding and affection. She their lives so that they may grow to the proper writes as follows : " How well my babies looked stature and be sound elements in some community and how grateful I am to you. Believe me, I which sets out to make life a decent thing in the cannot be unhappy seeing them so well-and free years after this war. 6 Competitors : Dominion Day Sports at Fairbridge.
Many Fairbridge subscribers are interested in minimum period of seven years, then they can be particular children whom they have adopted. doubled by the sum recoverable by the Society They will have the satisfaction of watching their from Inland Revenue (i.e. with Income Tax at its progress at one of the Farm Schools and their present figure). This is pleading for sustained emergence after their training into a larger world help and for new help. It is joined with gratitude of work and responsibility. We hope that other and a keen sense of stewardship. Will our old friends, who have not attached their contributions friends forgive a reiteration of the units of con to particular children, will still think of the help tributions for the information of those who are they give us as purchasing defined benefits for one new to the scale of expenditure for the children or more children. In sum these purchases will be who are our charges ? providing the hourly-the daily-hospitality of the £30 as an annual subscription will keep one child for Farm Schools and of our preparatory homes in a year. Such a subscriber as the " God-parent " of a Fairbridge child can keep in touch with a child, corre this country. And, if these gifts are made under spond with it and follow its career. £22 will meet the Deed of Covenant, binding the subscriber for a emigration expenses (transport and outfit) of one child. £12 will provide the transport expenses of a child about to leave for a Farm School in Canada or in Australia. £10 will provide the outfit of one child. Will you maintain, or help to maintain, a child at a Fairbridge Farm School ? Will you send, or help to send, a child to a Fairbridge Farm School ? The Society is deeply grateful for all subscriptions, large or small. Any subscriber to the Fairbridge Farm Schools (Inc.) who is an Income Tax payer, may become a " covenanted " subscriber, and, by observing certain simple conditions, may thereby enable the Society to claim from the Inland Revenue, a sum equal to the Income Tax that had been paid on the subscription. With Income Tax at 10s. in the £ this is tantamount to an addition of 100 per cent. to the amount subscribed. Covenanting subscribers may undertake to complete a Deed of Covenant for any sum per annum. For instance:- An Annual "Covenanted" Subscription of £r becomes £2. An Annual " Covenanted " Subscription of £2 becomes £4. An Annual " Covenanted " Subscription of £5 becomes £10. An Annual "Covenanted" Subscription of £re becomes £20. AND SO ON Fintry apples leaving the packing shed. Notic~ wi_ll be Fifteen hundred children join me m sending sent to subscribers when the import embargo is lifted. greetings and thanks to you. 7 Children of the Prince of Wales Farm School are now delightedly helping to clear the Summer Camp site at Cherry Poir. an English visitor, and f riends in British Columbi,
M I a stranger to you ? It may be, but I have the honour to claim myself an old A Friend of Fairbridge. That gives me leave A Messa9e to All Fr1 to address you as my friends. And you have a claim on me, for, as a member of the British FRO M Columbia Committee of the Fairbridge Farm MAJ OR- GENERAL VICTOR Schools, I, with my colleagues, have had to render account to you of our guardianship of Written as he was setting out to take up hi. your Canadian venture. for the Dominion of Canada in the Until I arrived in England with my men of the 2nd Canadian Division, I had given my concerted goodwill and affection and wise pro attention to that offshoot of Fairbridge situated vision has made first-rate young Canadians of in British Columbia. You know from the reports our little settlers. Those who have graduated you have received how the enterprise there has from the Farm School are now in employment grown in the short space of six years. as skilled workers. The Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, I should like to tell you about one Fairbridgian on Vancouver Island, was visited this year (1941) lad in particular who, in response to a sense of by Their Excellencies the Governor-General high duty, was called to His Majesty's service, Lord Athlone and Princess Alice. Remember, and arrived last year in England as a gunner in early in 1935, it was the rather neglected farm the Royal Canadian Artillery. He and his family property known as Pemberlea. Many of my knew bitter hard times on the Tyneside in the friends looked on the new enterprise of Fairbridge years before " Fairbridge " was asked to give him in their neighbourhood with misgiving. They a hand. Any hand that could really help such were able to give cogent reasons for their doubts. a lad had to be as good as that of the best kind But we know now what certain determined of parent. He thrived in our Farm School. In ptople in England can do for the children entrusted the fullness of time he landed in this country to them, and those who doubted or who were with his Canadian comrades. He is smartly indifferent have come to be proud and delighted turned out and ambitious in his duty. But this that they can now give a hand in fostering these is what I want, especially, to tell you. He was same children. I hope you will be happy and not content until he had shifted his mother from share my British pride when I tell you that this the inadequate home (that which he himself 8 mY Point, Vancouver Island. H ere they are seen with faces set for home after a happy expedition. The site was given by Columbia have promised the necessary buildings.
him to Farm School life and so to develop his character and aptitudes that he would be able to Friends of Fairbrid9e stand his ground as a skilful and independent Canadian citizen. This fellow played his part 1 ROM well at the Farm School and accepted his re IR OD LUM, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. sponsibilities as an older boy. In good time he and the Principal, Mr. Harry Logan, went to '!'Phis appointment as High Commissioner see a neighbour who offered the boy a good job in the Commonwealth of Australia a good wage and the opportunity to learn from an experienced and successful master. That was left in 1935) in which he found her on his first all good. But our end had not been fully accom leave. He demanded that we must deliver up plished. This Fairbridgian broke his bond and his savings for this purpose. We were cautious we next heard of him from the United States in our response, I have to confess. However, Police in California. He had made a bold stroke he had his way, and over the heads of his elder for adventure. There was nothing against him brothers he moved his mother to a home of her save his lack of " papers " ; he had no authority own-a home which his new standards of life for his presence in the U.S.A. Mr. Logan, demanded. Thus you who have joined with us although the affair caused him great anxiety, to rescue children from bitter ill-fortune should was able, because of his affection and under stop and consider how far-reaching is the effect standing, to take an objective view of the matter. of your scheme, of your generosity and your The lad, he said, needed a larger field for his determination. You give life and hope and self energy and imagination. The explorer returned. respect and sure-handed skill to such a lad. Further, the fruit of your help touches his mother He and Mr. Logan put their heads together. on the one hand and will, I am confident, have The lad enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. a profound effect on the family of which he will, He has distinguished himself amongst his fellows . we may presume, one day be the head. He is now with joy and satisfaction helping to There is another lad, too, whose story I should keep the sea routes open for you. And he has like to mention. He also was a Tynesider. He, sailed up the Tyne in his ship. too, came to us in Canada at an age which made Those are of your greatest triumphs ! Think us doubt the ability of the Principal to acclimatise first on them. But also delight yourselves with 9 Children for Molong Farm School,June, 1940. They travelled to New South Wales by way of Canada, Hawaii, 10 Fiji and New Zealand. Pride of Fintry. Ayrshire champions of Agricultural Shows, and (left) : a champion Clydesdale " Bob Dunure" with Teamster Ernie Todd of Tyneside, now well known on Vancouver Island. remembering that beautiful estate which is the lately to send a number of children to the Farm Farm School. Let your minds dwell on two School on Vancouver Island. They were given hundred and more children in the joyfulness of a very safe passage. You will rejoice that this a free community. You have seen many pictures was accomplished. Imagine with what pleasure of their village and of the prosperous farm. You my colleagues of the British Columbia Com can set them against that landscape of mountain mittee welcomed these first arrivals after this and forest of Vancouver Island. You can also long interval when no children might cross the take pleasure in the beautiful village church water. The Associated Lumbermen of British which one of you has built and many of my Columbia, who built the hospital for the Farm friends and colleagues have furnished. And I School, were there when they arrived. They want to tell you of the latest present which one claimed them as their very special charges for of you whom I may not name has given ! It whom they will accept financial responsibility. is the site for a summer camp. Fortunate children ! That is another heartening instance of how They will have their summer holidays on the much the Canadians feel they are in a common foreshore of the island looking across the Strait cause with you in making good to these children to the Islands of San Juan Archipelago. That is to what they lost by ill chance. At the same time be the playground of the children you sent to us, they do not lose sight of the other aspect : they whom you found, maybe, in some dark street look forward to these young people qualifying the very street, perhaps, that has now been as skilful and responsible Canadian citizens. bombed. As I have said, the war brought me with my As I mention the raids, I think of the number Canadians to England. I must not pause to tell of children amongst the casualties. With that you what hard work we have put into those many in my mind, I can tell you with very great months of preparing for the defence of this personal satisfaction that it has been possible island. But, in passing, I may be allowed to II Fintry Fairbridgians parade with their Ayrshires at the annual Agricultural Show of the district.
mention that, with Fairbridge in my mind, I have rise in income tax has absorbed the margin of watched with very great interest the soldiers from income from which they gave their contribution. Canadian farms giving a hand to English farmers That is a major casualty for Fairbridge funds. at the harvest. The Canadian lads have sung the Those friends must remain with us in spirit glories of British farming, and their hosts have and support us with their prayers. Those who rejoiced to have such stalwart and skilful help. can continue will, I hope, be in such strength That especial co-operation appeals to us, as as to keep Fairbridge alive. The great afflictions Fairbridgians : it seems to have some relationship of this war have made us realise that children to the kind of co-operation we are fostering around must be the first charge on us. Their protection the Farm Schools in Canada and Australia. and fostering and training must be done now Whilst I have been in this country it has been punctually as they need it. I must confess to be a big satisfaction to me to visit the headquarters very moved when, in reply to my enquiries, I find of " Fairbridge " in London and there hear of that, even in these hard times, the " backers " plans and achievements in the whole field of the of Fairbridge are, at some sacrifice, keeping organisation. faithful to the self-imposed obligation to pay the The sinking of the City of Benares was the cost of keeping this little Tommy or that little tragic warning to us that the Atlantic was too Katie at the Farm School. And having witnessed perilous for us to risk children's lives. It was the horrors and devastation of the air-raids, recalled to me that once before in its early history I share with the sponsors of those children a the sea communications of Fairbridge were feeling of pride that we have them safe from the interrupted. During the period 1914-18, Kingsley range of danger and in a place where there is no Fairbridge, having launched his venture in 1912, lack of all that nourishes a child. was all but cut off from his base. You know well But is " Fairbridge " only concerned in seeing how he refused to be daunted. He stood that through those children whom it accepted before siege and, miraculously, was ready when peace the war ? I found when I set about my question came to receive the children ready to come to ing that the war has not daunted " Fairbridge " him. Those children had the precious last few in its primary concern. In spite of a decline in years of his life. This time, as I have mentioned funds, in spite of the immense difficulties in above, we have not had to wait so long, at any securing safe housing, it has kept its doors open rate where Canada is concerned. But the financial for any child who needs its help. If I had not anxiety is, of course, much greater than it was been held by my Command I should have gone when only one very small Farm School had to be to visit those small p:ople, prospective Fair sustained. bridgians, who are housed in Wilderhope Manor I learn that many of the most faithful supporters in Shropshire. They are the Fairbridge" cadets." in this country have had to withdraw : the steep In any case, they are much below the age at 12 A ploughing lesson, with "home-bred" Cly desdales, Prince of W ales Fairbridge Farm S chool.
which children are passed for entry by the In the same neighbourhood, I am told, the Dominions Authorities. Those who are taking slightly older children who are due for the Farm care of them so ably and so devotedly miss all Schools are in billets. Sound country folk are the well-planned equipment that Mr. and Mrs. their foster parents. These boys and girls, too, Paul Cactbury had built into the new Babies' are thriving and are learning country pursuits. Home at the Middlemore Homes, near Bourn I can prophesy that when at last some of them ville. But more important than up-to-date arrive in Vancouver Island my friends and equipment at the present moment is to be away neighbours will feel pride and delight that these from a target for air-raids. Those babies are fine children have come to join their community. safe and their young minds and imagination are At this point I must mention that the Society being impressed with the lovely English see• e. has had some grand help from the ladies of I have not seen them and it is not a possible New South Wales in keeping these children-a expedition for many of you who are providing hundred of them-warmly clad and shod. Not the means of maintaining them. We can, how only has that eased the purse of the Society ever, all of us feel an immense satisfaction that but it has added to the delight of the children. our smallest Fairbridgians are making this We all know the deep interest children take in wholesome beginning to their career. I like to apparel. Their vanity and comfort both have • think of them, grown up in Canada or Australia, been satisfied by these presents sent from New boasting that their early steps were set on the South Wales. It is indeed a pleasant foretaste sheep walks of Shropshire. of Australia for them. 13 Bringing in their first sheaves.
With this thought on the subject of Australian to take their place as cmzens with Australians wool and Australian generosity, I come to the of equal stability and skill. I shall not lose an point of telling you that I am myself about to opportunity to see the Farm Schools in Western set out for that mettlesome country. I go to Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. represent my own country, Canada, as its High I should like very much to see some of those brave Commissioner. I hope that my colleagues on the lads from Kingsley Fairbridge's own Farm School Fairbridge Committee in British Columbia will who have come home after the campaigns in keep me in their brotherhood and allow me still Africa and Syria. I hear that three hundred of to share their responsibilities even though I be them are in His Majesty's Service. As a veteran, too far distant to record my views at their dis I claim an especial fellowship with them and cussions. I shall also feel fortified by having I hope they will recognise the bond between us. made the acquaintance of " Fairbridge " at its The boys and girls of the Molong Farm School source and by my knowledge of your hopes and are not yet old enough to be in the King's Service, determinations and ambitions for the children but I know I shall find them growing up with whom you entrust to Canada and Australia. the same consciousness that we all stand together. These things will be in my mind when I am in Close to them are all friends of " Fairbridge " in Australia and they will be my first point of contact Britain, Canada and Australia. That fellow with those Australians who share your devotion ship is part of a larger community which is • to this ideal of launching these boys and girls consecrated to the duty of conquering injustice in that vigorous and youthful country. There, and of freeing from the recurrent menace of war far from their early troubles, they will be free those who are the heirs of the world's true riches. 14 FAIRBRIDGE F AR M SCH O OLS (I CORPORA TED) PRESIDENT: H.R.H. THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, K.G., K.T.
Founder : KINGSLEY FAIRBRIDGE (1885-1924)
Chairman : *SIR CHARLES HAMBRO, K.B.E., M.C. Hon. Treasurer : *SIR PATRICK FAGAN, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. Council: *LADY ANDERSON, D.B.E. MRS. JOHN HALDANE SIR MALCOLM BARCLAY-HARVEY, K.C.M.G. BERTIE HEILBRON, ESQ. MRS. NORMAN BENTWICH *COLONEL THE HON. H.K. M. KINDERSLEY. FIELD-MARSHAL LORD BIRDWOOD, G.C.B., P. T. KIRKPATRICK, ESQ. G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., D.S.O. SIR ROGER LUMLEY, G.C.I.E. *SIR WILLIAM BRASS, M.P. THE HON. ANGUS MCDONNELL, C.B., C.M.G. *MISS CHARLOTTE BUSH. *MRS. G. C. MARRIOTT *PAUL CADBURY, ESQ. JOHN M:,.-RRAY, ESQ., M.A. *SIR WILLIAM CAMPION, K.C.M.G. *COLONEL W. NASH, M .B.E. SIR HAL COLEBATCH, C.M.G. CAPTAIN G. MERCER NAIRNE. *SIR ARTHUR CURTIS, K.C.v.o., C.M.G. MISS DOROTHY LANE POOLE GEOFFREY DAWSON, ESQ., D.C.L. *THE LORD PORTAL, D.S.O., M.V.O. THE VISCOUNT DEVONPORT *MAJOR DEREK SCHREIBER, M .V.O. *MRS. STEPHEN FAIRBAIRN TOM SMITH, ESQ., M.P. MRS. KINGSLEY FAIRBRIDGE PROFESSOR T. S. STERLING *MRS. A. D. F. GASCOIGNE, O.B.E. THE LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL *MRS. LIONEL F. GOLDSMID *CAPTAIN H. WALTER STYLES ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM GOODENOUGH, THE LADY TWEEDSMUIR G.C.B., M.V.O. *THE REVEREND A. G. B. WEST, M.A. THE EARL GREY *MRS. ROBERT WILBERFORCE SIR EDWARD GRIGG, K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., *BASIL R. WOOLLCOMBE, ESQ. D.S.O., M.P. R. G. WRIGHTSON, ESQ. * The Executive Committee Represelltatives of the Perth (W.A.) Committee : COLONEL J. WALEY COHEN, C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.O. W. L. SANDOVER, ESQ. SUB-COMMITTEES : Western Australia : British Columbia :
SIR WILLIAM CAMPION (Chairman) SIR WILLIAM BRASS (Chairman) MRS. L. F. GOLDSMID MRS. A. D. F. GASCOIGNE MRS.G.C.MARRIOTT CAPTAIN G. MERCER NAIRNE. W. L. SANDOVER, ESQ . THE REV. A. G. B. WEST COLONEL J. WALEY COHEN MRS. ROBERT WILBERFORCE
New South Wales : Children's Advisory : SIR ARTHUR CURTIS (Chairman) LADY (CHARLES) HAMBRO LADY ANDERSON MRS. H.K. M. KINDERSLEY MRS. FAIRBAIRN MAJOR DEREK SCHREIBER COLONEL W. NASH CAPTAIN H. W. STYLES MAJOR DEREK SCHREIBER MRS. ROBERT WILBERFORCE Finance: GEOFFREY DAWSON, ESQ. SIR PATRICK FAGAN SIR CHARLES HAMBRO LORD PORTAL COLONEL THE HON. H. K. M. KINDERSLEY B. R. WOOLLCOMBE, ESQ.
Honorary Consulting Physicians : DR. REGINALD LIGHTWOOD, M.D., F.R.C.P. DR. WILFRID SHELDON, M.D., F.R.C.P.
Honorary Psychiatrist : DR. WILLIAM MOODIE, M.D., F.R.C.P.
Auditors: MESSRS. J. H. CHAMPNESS, CORDEROY & co., CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS, IO ST. SWITHIN'S LANE, E.C.4
Bankers : WESTMINSTER BANK, LTD. (ALDWYCH BRANCH) , CONNAUGHT HOUSE, W.C.2
S ecretary: GORDON GREEN, SAVOY HOUSE, II5 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2 I l1AIRBRIDGE FARII SCHOOLS INCORPORATED) FOUNDED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN 1909 BY KINGSLEY FAIRBRIDGE I THIRTY-FIRST YEAR 1940
! ... THE KINGSLEY FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL ESTABLISHED BY THE FOUNDER AT PINJARRA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN 1912 THE PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL VANCOUVER ISLAND BRITISH COLUMBIA ESTABLISHED 1935
THE FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL OF NEW SOUTH WALES ESTABLISHED AT MOLONG IN 1937 THE NORTHCOTE CHILDREN'S FARM (ASSOCIATED WITH THE FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOLS) ESTABLISHED AT BACCHUS MARSH VICTORIA IN 1937 '
THE FINTRY FAIRBRIDGE TRAINING FARM I OKANAGAN VALLEY I BRITISH COLUMBIA ESTABLISHED 1938
HEADQUARTERS I SAVOY HOUSE, 115 STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2
PrinteO in London at The Baynard Press The ~ Fairbridge ~
e Farm Schools ~
~<.I'° " Is this a holy thing to see ~ ~ fo a rich and fruitful land, ~ Babes reduced to misery, ~ Fed with cold and usurous hand? . . . ~~ And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways are fill' d with thorns ; It is eternal winter there." ~ WILLIAM BLAKE 2 9
UUH:J,~'------\:;~Y'/Nn!
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
1940-4 t
MAP SHOW ING FE RRY UD OF ROAD ROUrES WASHINGTOM FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE Of WALES FA IRBRID6E fARM SQiOOL " I looked, and beheld . . . The brown of the veld, the unending immensity, League after league of the houseless and homeless, The smokeless, the gardenless wealth of the T he story of the Fairbridge Farm Schools desert, must start with Kingsley Fairbridge himself. He was born in South Africa. In 1891, when The rivers zmfish' d and the valleys unhunted, Kingsley was six years old, his father went up An empire peopled with nothing- a country to Rhodesia-one of the pioneers who set out to open up that country according to the Abandoned to emptiness, yearning for people, instructions of Cecil Rhodes. Five years later he went with his mother and sister to join his A mother well .fit for the birth of a nation." father. In the open veldt he learned how to live : that was his school. His father, enduring KINGSLEY FAIRB RIDGE all the hazards of a pioneer's life, encouraged the boy to learn all the lessons of a hard country. On one occasion his father offered him ten pounds if he would build some grass huts on his property a few miles out of Umtali.
3
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
1940-4 t
MAP SHOWING FERRY UD ROAD ROUTIS FOUNOEO TO TRA IN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL £22 WILL MEET THE EXPE SES OF EMIGRA TIO FOR O E CHILD King ley accepted and set out with one native boy, his dog, and some food and blankets. But the job took longer than he had calculated and he got very short of food. There was also persistent rain. They had been two days without food before the huts were completed. Then came the return journey over a spur of the mountains back to Umtali. Thi is his own de cription of his experience : " I felt dreamy and far away ; my body seemed light, but I breathed heavily as we breasted the gre2t slope . uddenly the thought came to me : ' Why are there no farms? Why are there no people?' It came to me again and again : ' Why are there no farms here?' I remembered having heard my mother say that her father had been concerned in settling the emigrants who came from England to the Cape. ' Why are there no emigrants here ? ' I thought. I found myself picking out little plateaux on the grassy slopes, and thinking : ' There is rhe 1a1ron·dge J"',,. ~n ols a11srralla a, d canaaa the fa,rbndge farm schools ausrral,a ,md c 4 5
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
1940-4 t
MAP SHOWING FERRY AIID ROAD ROUTIS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO f'OR Lll"E IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARH SQIOOL £12 WILL PROVIDE THE EXPENSES
room there for a farm.' " Climbing the steep and slippery hills was most exhausting. . . . I would look into the deep valleys, where the grass was six feet high, and wish I could see a farm. I imagined smoke coming out of the chimneys and the grass all cropped by cattle. So the vision came to me when I was starved and miserable. I spoke it aloud : ' Some day I will bring farmers here.' " When he was seventeen he went for a holiday to England. The sight of English country gave him joy, but it was at that time that he saw the swarms of children, pale-faced and under-nourished in the congested parts of the big cities. That experience, too, had a profoun'.i effect on his mind, and he felt compelled by a great urge to set right that waste and in humanity. The earlier experience on the veldt returned in memory to him, and he saw that his part was to save the children and with them give farmers to the untilled, unpastured lands of
airbndge farm schoots .it t,ullu and ca11ada the Jairlm"dge Jann schools australia and ca11ada 6 7
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAN D
1940-4 t
MAP SHOWING FERRY AND
ROAD ROUTES FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILOREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE Of WALES FAIRBRID6E fARH SCHOOL £ I ,OOO WILL BUILD A COTTAGE FOR FOURTEE CHILDREN
the Dominions. His dream-his project took shape : there would be the double purpose of rescuing the children, and of settling happy, competent people in the vast unexploited spaces of the Oversea Dominions. Six years later he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, and he entered Exeter College. At once, within the University, he set to work to develop his scheme. He secured the support of forty-nine fellow Undergraduates-many of them Rhodes Scholars-and formed the first Committee of the Child Emigration Society. In 19n, Kingsley Fairbridge, having com pleted his career at Oxford, gave the whole of his time, attention and energy to launching his enterprise. He collected £2,000. With his Committee he surveyed the proposals which came from Dominions for placing the Farm School. After much study it was decided to accept the invitation of the Western Australian Government which was supported by an offer the /,11rbndge /am, schools aus1ra/1a and ca11ada ll e fa1rbr1dg farm sclwJ s au rral1a amt canada 8 9
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
1940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY AIID ROAD ROUTIS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO f'OR Ll,.E IN CAN A DA PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRID6E fARM SCHOOL £ro WILL PROVIDE THE COST OF THE OUTFIT FOR ONE CHILD of land on very favourable terms, and assisted his ~assio~ate th~ories for transforming these passages to Fremantle. English children mto Australian countrymen. Fairbridge married at the end of December When War broke out in the following year, it 19n, and sailed with his wife for Wester~ threatened to paralyse the venture. Funds Australia in the follo_wing March. They spent which in the ordinary course would have been some weeks prospecting for a good site and at available were diverted for war work, and it last decided to take a small property' of one was not possible to bring children overseas. hundred and fifty acres near Pinjarra. The Fairbridge however, drew the interest and farm was derelict, but resources were small support of some generous friends in Perth and Fairbridge decided that with good work it and with _their help ~as able to keep the Farm could be made a reasonable home and training School alive. Emergmg from the trial of four ground. Th~ next !ew months were spent in years, he was more than ever determined to str~nuously rmprovmg the farm and in pre maintain and to extend his experiment. He parmg for the first party of children. came to England in 1919 and succeeded in In January, 1913, thirteen boys arrived at re-kindling the interest in the scheme, and he Fremantle, and Fairbridg
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND J{'
1940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY AND ROAO ROUTES FOUNDED TO TRA IN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CAN A D A PRINCE Of WALES FAIRBRIDGE fARH SCHOOL £22 WILL MEET THE EXPENSES OF EMIGRATION FOR ONE CHILD
with a few of the older boys and work started on clearing and building. Further parties of children arrived, and in due time the whole community was settled at the new farm. But the struggle to get sufficient funds and to secure financial support from the British and Australian Governments had to go on if the scheme was to survive and prosper. Fairbridge accepted the whole of the big task of directing the Farm School and of finding the means for making financial provision for it. By 1923, he had, however, demonstrated the value of his experiment, and it was recognised that the Farm School not only gave these children from England health, happiness and training for settlement in Australia, but also that it was a most important contribution to the Imperial problem of the settlement of people of British stock in the Dominions. Recognition of his uccess secured, for Fairbridge, maintenance grants from the British Government and from the State Government of Western Australia, and irbrulge Jam, schools a11stra/ia and ca11ada me Ja1ror,age 1arrn scnoois a11Stra11a ana 12
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND J('
1940-41
MAP §MOWING FERRY ...u ROAO ROUTIS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TD FOR LIFE IN CANADA PR INCE Of WALES FAIRBRIDGE f~RM SCHOOL £ I2 WILL PROVIDE THE EXPENSES OF TRANSPORT FOR ONE CHI LD from the Commonwealth Government of Australia. With this guaranteed support the Farm School was firmly established. Kingsley Fairbridge died in 1924. The Farm School survived. His friends and associates, both in Western Australia and in England, determined to carry on his work in the same spirit in which he conceived it. When the Committee of the Child Emigration Society moved from Oxford to London in 1922, Sir Arthur Lawley, who later became Lord Wenlock, accepted the Chairmanship. Sir Arthur had been Governor of Western Australia and had a very extensive experience of Dominion affairs. He also had a deep and personal concern for children. The Farm School was loyally and devotedly served by the London Committee, and the Chairman successfully steered the organisation through its many problems of administration. In 1934, a decision was made to place additional Farm Schools in the Dominions and to give
11rbridt?e farm schools austrat1a a11a can ..Ju the / a1rbridge farm schools a11stral1a and can 15
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND J(
1940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY &110 ROAD ROUTES FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRIKC£ Of WALES FAJR8RID6£ fARH SCHOOL £1,000 WILL BUILD AND FURNISH A COTTAGE FOR FOURTEEN CHILDREN the benefits of Fairbridge training to an increased number of children. His Royal of Tyneside, who are the victims of the acute Highness the Prince of Wales appealed for and chronic poverty and of the hopelessness of homes where unemployment endures. Children £100,000 for the establishment of three more Farm Schools and himself opened the fund were lifted from the darker streets and trans ported across the Atlantic ; across Canada with a gift of £1,000. There was generous response and the first fruits were the founding they found their new home in a place of great of the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School beauty. The Farm School was planned to give the children wise care and a happy existence on Vancouver Island. An estate of 1,000 acres in the beautiful Cowichan Valley was bought. and training for life and work in Canada. They It has woodland and water and a well-developed have immediately responded both mentally and physically to that environment and mixed farm of 300 acres. Certain adaptations were made and cottages and other necessary security ; and to-day visitors see there over two hundred children, free and in buoyant buildings were constructed. In September of health, completely acclimatised to country life, 1935, the first party of children, numbering confident of being able to take their place as forty-one, set out for Vancouver Island and Canadian citizens. settled into their new home at Cowichan. 1938, Captain Dun Waters made a gift to the Many of them came from the most wretched In Society of Fintry, his property of 2,000 acres parts of the Tyneside. The Society had recently opened an office in Newcastle so that in the Okanagan Valley. He had spent twenty the benefits of Fairbridge might be brought five years in planting and cultivating this estate, within the knowledge and reach of the children and having brought it to maturity, made it over to Fairbridge children. The children from the
1rbruJge farm n:ricxJ[S austra/1a and canada the farrbridg~ Jann schools australia a11d 16 17
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
t 940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY ANO
ROAD ROUTtS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CH I LDREN TD FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRID6E fARH SCHOOL £10 WILL PROVIDE THE COST OF THE OUTFIT FOR ONE CHILD
Farm School in Vancouver Island will be able months we heard that they were entirely to serve their apprenticeship to mainland absorbed in their new life and were so accom farming at Fintry, and it will also be a fine plished as countrymen as to take prizes at the place for holidays for Fairbridgians at the Farm local Agricultural Show. The Governor School, and also for those in employment. General of Australia, Lord Gowrie, visited the The third Fairbridge Farm has been established Farm School in November of 1938, and in New South Wales. In 1936, a number of formally opened it. He congratulated the Rhodes Scholars backed by some public l children on coming to so hospitable a country spirited and generous men of means, deter and spoke of the great opportunities that lay mined that New South Wales also should have before them. The Principal, Mr. R. R. a Fairbridge Farm School. They offered their Beauchamp, in responding to Lord Gowrie, co-operation to the Society, and collected a asked the guests to note as they inspected the considerable part of the capital necessary for grounds of the Farm School, that all the work the establishment. The late Mr. Andrew Reid, of draining, garden-making, tree-planting and of Sydney, was the prime mover, and on his stone-walling, had been done by children whose advice a first-rate farming property was bought average age was eleven years, and that all they at Molong, a neighbourhood of good country knew about tools before they arrived earlier in about two hundred miles west of Sydney. the year was how to lose them or break them. Early in 1938, cottages and other necessary buildings were ready for the first party of The Government of New South Wales has children who arrived in April, 1938. These built a school for the special benefit of the children settled down at once, and within a few Farm School at a cost of £12,000. It has also
1e irbridge farm schools australia a11d canada the fairbrzdge farm schools amtra/1a a11d ca11ad 18 19
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAN D JI'
1940-4 t
MAP SHOWING FERRY AIID ROAD ROUTES FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL £22 WILL MEET THE EXPENSES OF EMIGRATION FOR ONE CHILD
provided excellent teachers who have identified any child-up to the age of twelve or thirteen in themselves with the objects of Fairbridge and special cases-who is in need of help, and who with the policy of the Principal. can pass the scrutiny of the Immigration The Northcote Children's Farm at Bacchus Officers of Australia or Canada. At once when Marsh in the State of Victoria, Australia is an application is made on behalf of a child, administered by a Board of Trustees (Australian arrangements are made to have it examined by and English), under the will of the late Lady the referee Medical Officer of the Australian or Northcote, who left her fortune for the founda Canadian Government. If the report is tion of this Farm School. It is modelled on the favourable, the child is taken immediately into Fairbridge Farm Schools, and the Trustees the care of the Society and is placed in its and the Principal have an arrangement of close hostel or in the Middlemore Emigration collaboration with Fairbridge. The children Homes in Birmingham. During this period of for Northcote are prepared for going overseas probation and preparation, the child learns how by the headquarters of the Fairbridge Farm to live in a community and has any medical or Schools, and no differentiation is made dental attention that has been prescribed. between them and children intended for the Then comes the final medical and psycho Fairbridge Farm Schools. The Northcote logical examination to test the child's fitness Children's Farm was opened in July, 1937, and for acceptance by Australia or Canada. If it on completion will accommodate two hundred passes, then an outfit to suit the particular child and fifty children. is prepared and it sails with a number of other * * * * * * children. If it fails an effort is made to find The Society is ready to come to the help of some alternative provision which ensures care t e 11rbnage Jarm schools austral1a QJUJ eanada tl,e f airbridge farm schools a1utral1a a11d ca•,a..c. 20 21
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
t 940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY ANO ROAO ROUTES FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRIKCE OF WALES fAJR8RID6E fARH SCHOOL £12 WILL PROVIDE THE EXPENSES OF TRANS P ORT FOR ONE CH[LD and safety for the child. The children go in parties of about thirty in charge of three con ductors, who are well qualified to take care of children. All children so accepted and sent to a Fair bridge Farm School remain the wards of the Fairbridge Farm School Society until they are twenty-one years of age, they are safely launched in work, and satisfactorily settled in the new country. The approval of both the Australian and Canadian Governments leaves the local Committees of the Farm Schools and the Principals free to give every child a fair chance of making the best use of its capabilities. By the co-operation of the Directors of Education in the respective states it is possible to give Fairbridge children every help to cultivate their talents and to increase their opportunities as wage-earning citizens. It is agreed by all who have experience of children (and who have learnt from that experience) that the soundest life for a child
ht a1rbndg6 farm schools austral1a a11d ca11ada rlie fairbridge farm schools australia and ci., aG .i 22 23
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND JI'
1940-4 t
MAP SHOW ING FERRY AIID ROAD ROUTES FOUNOEO TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CAN A D,' PRINCE OF WALES FAIR8RID6 £ fARM SCHOOL £1,000 WILL BUILD AND FURNISH A COTTAGE FOR FOURTEEN CHILDREN
from every point of view is in a normal and happy family. Happy family life has been denied to many children who pass into the care of Fair bridge, and the pledge of the Society and of the Principals of the Farm Schools who receive from the Society the custody of the children is that they shall have the advantages (as nearly as they can be secured) which children of ordinary and decent families enjoy. The Farm Schools are devised in the belief that a rural upbringing and training is the best means of repairing early ills and of fostering in the child a wise and healthy way of life. This environment and teaching will influence the bent of the children towards farm work and home duties, and in these two spheres of work the children will find the labour they have to offer at a premium in either of the Dominions, for the trades of farm labouring and domestic service have a shortage of labour. Indeed, a certain number of children who are brought up in the Farm Schools will find their best
irbn"Jge /arm schools australia and canada we 1a1rbnage farm sc1wo1s a11srra11a ana c 25
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND JI'
1940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY HD ROAD ROUT(S FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR8RID6E fARM SCHOOL £10 WILL PROVIDE THE COST OF THE OUTFIT FOR ONE CHILD work in one or other of those trades. In those cases supply and demand are satisfied without is the responsibility of the Principal. There any strain on justice. On the other hand some fore the Principal who accepts and responds children are not cut out for farm labou;ing or to the charge of educating Fairbridge children domestic work and show aptitude for other has the sympathetic support of his local Com trades and positions in the labour markets. It mittee, and the whole-hearted and intelligent is in the best interests of the community and of backing of the Society from which he receives the State that the most competent work of its his charge. citizens should be made available and should T~e process, expressed simply, is that the no~ be sti~ed ~y constraint of opportunity. Prmcipal undertakes to receive the selected W~th that m nund as well as justice to the children and to give every child the care the children concerned, the Society undertakes to training and the opportunity that its char;cter give every child the freedom to follow its bent, al:d capacity _warr~n~. The Principal accepts and_ wi_thin its means it will help the child to his charge (smce 1D1tial selection in London eqwp itself for the career for which its gifts has in good faith passed only the ordinarily and accomplishments fit it. In short, it will normal and fit) ~o care for all, to give individual attempt to do for every child what wise and care and_ educauon (in its broadest meaning) to energetic parents would do. all, to give encouragement to talents, to have The business (i.e. the finance and politics of life as well_ as work in mind in giving training, administration) of a Farm School faJls on and to devise means of strengthening the weak th~ local Committee, but the training of the and wayward so that they, too, may achieve children for contented and effective citizenship indepen~ence and live contentedly in the commUillty. he Jairbridge f ann schools ausrrat1a and canada rhe Jairbruige farm schools ausrralia a11d ca11t.w· 26 27
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL
DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAN D J(
1940-4 t
MAP SHOWING FERRY HD ROAD ROUTIS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL £22 WILL MEET THE EXPENSES OF EMIGRATION FOR ONE CHILD
Both girls and boys when they reach the stage of preparing for employment have .!special sympathy and guidance at a time when they may-even the best of them-have a certain degree of emotional unbalance. The Principal, and the staff chosen by him, by understanding, experience and science, are equipped to help and strengthen the boys and girls until they reach a stable state of mind. This specialised care of the older children leads to the provision and organisation of After-Care when the Fairbridgians go to employment. At that stage the Principal delegates the care of his wards to competent and experienced Officers who carry the work of the Principal to its logical conclusion. This ensures that every child has recourse to the backing and advice of the Farm School Principal and his staff in its early years of employment. The After-Care Officers, too, have sufficient knowledge of the world and of the country and territory in which they are working to enable them to
'iirbn'dge fan11 schools a11stralia a11d ca11ada the fv.1rbndge fwm SCJliJiJIS a~stralia a11d c •• u" 28 29
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCO UVER ISLAND Jf
1940-4 1
MAP SHOWING FERRY AIID ROAD Rouns FOUNOEO TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDG E fARM SCHOOL £12 WILL PROVIDE THE EXPENSES OF TRANSPORT FOR ONE CHILD
establish good relations with employers and to secure from them faithful co-operation in setting these children in the way of in dependence and good workmanship. * * * * * * It was the ambition and intention of Kingsley Fairbridge that the Farm Schools should prepare the children in every possible case to be farmers : that is, to own and manage their farms. The object remains to-day and the Society has the nucleus of a fund for the purpose. An Old Fairbridgian who acquires the necessary skill and experience in farming and proves himself capable of proper management of a farm, can qualify for the financial assistance which the Society hopes to have available. An attempt will be made within the next year or two to raise such a fund as will serve as a reservoir for this purpose of setting Fairbridge farmers in the way of independence. As they become securely established, they may be able to make a return to the fund which can then benefit he f'airbridge farm schools austraiia a11d ca11ada the fa1rbr1dge Jann schools australla a,uJ ,.. a 30 31
PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND Jf
t 940-41
MAP SHOWING FERRY a•D ROAD ROUTES FOUNOED TO TRA IN B RITISH CHIL.OR E N TO F OR LIF E I N C A N A D A PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL £ I ,OOO WILL BUILD AND FURNISH A COTTAGE FOR FOURTEEN CHILDREN successive numbers of Fairbridgians. The plan, too! lo?ks_ forward to employment by WILL YOU HELP? these Faubndgian farmers of other Fair bridgians as they finish their training at the Subscriptions, Donations, etc., Farm School. This is colonisation in its true may be addressed to :- sense, and is certainly the logical development of ~he rescu_e of children in this country and CIIARU::s HAMBRO, Esq., Chairman, their _e~ucat10n and training as citizens of the Fairbridge Farm Schools (Inc.), Dorrumons. But, for this ambitious plan the Savoy House, Society needs the generous help of those'who an~ m_ov~d ;o giy~ a hand in ~stablishing u5 Strand, London, W.C.2 Fatrbndg1ans families on the land m Australia and in Canada. The Imperial importance of Cheques should be made payable to the such settlement is obvious and its social and "Fairbridge Farm Schools (Incorporated)." human value is such as will 'give a rich dividend to the community.
The Society have a 16 mm. non-inflammable film Those who help this cause know that illustrating the life and training of the children at the their support SAVES CHILDREN Fairbridge Farm School in Western Australia and Canada. Complete apparaws is available and exhibi and it also strengthens the Empire. tion can be arra11ged upon application to the Secretary. ht arrbndge Jann scJuols austral,a am, canada me ;a,rbru,ge Ja,m PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND 1940-4 t HAP SHOWING FERRY AND ROAD ROUTTS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANADA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOLS HOW FAIRBRIDGE FRIENDS CAN HELP EVERY contributior pun h "f'"' hdp and will be u-.rd to th<' grr-atr-.t profit for th<· c·hildrni. £1,000 will build au PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND 1940-41 MAP SHOWING FERRY AIID ROAD ROUTtS FOUNDED TO TRAIN BRITISH CHILDREN TO FOR LIFE IN CANAOA PRINCE OF WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SCHOOL ~ The ~ ~ a?' Fairbridge C Farni Schools ~ " Is this _ahholy thin'!.,w seed ~ori"G 111 a ric and frui,1 u11 an , . Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand? Aud their sun does never shine, ~ A11d their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways arefill'd with thorns; It is eternal wine er there." WILLIAM BLAKE ~ ~ '------'~ :Hffr~ . :J-IM-/J PRINCE OF WALES FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL DUNCAN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND 1940-41 MAP SHOWING FERRY &11D ROAD ROUTtS FOUNDED TO TRA IN B R ITISH CHI L DREN TD FOR LIF E IN C A N A D A PRINCE Of WALES FAIR BRIDGE fARM SaiDOL The ~ Fairbridge ~ (' Farn1 Schools ~ ar~c· " Is this a holy thing to see 9JO~ In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery, ? Fed with cold and usurous hand? U And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, ~ And their ways arefill'd with thorns • U~ I t is etemal winter there." ' ~ ~ --WILL-IAM BL- AKE ---J ~ 'YIN•r.J , <' :...Hlln~ J'IIK":J THE PRINCE OF WALES F AIRBRIDGE FARM SCHOOL GENERAL INFORMATION Origin The first Fairbridge Farm School was founded in Western Australia in 1912 by Kingsley Fairbridge (1885 - 1924), a South African Rhodes Scholar. The Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School was established at Duncan, British Columbia, in 1935. In Australia there are now three Fairbridge Farm Schools. ADMINISTRATION Headquarters Fairbridge Farm Schools Incorporated, Savoy House, 115 Strand, London W .C. 2, Engla nd. P resident: H.TI.H. THE l)UKE OF GLOUCESTER Chairman: C. J . l!A:\IBRO, E. Q. , M.C. In Canada The Principal Executive Officer, H. T. Logan, E ~q., M.C., M.A., a l'sisted by an Advisory Committee of r epresentative citizens of British Colu mbia under chair man.· hip of R. \\'. Mayhew, E :-q., M.P. The Fairbridge I ~ I Farin Schools " Is this _a holy thing to see In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced io misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand? And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways are fill' d with thorns ; Ii is eternal wimer there." WlLLIAM BLAKE F airbridge Farm S chool Aim of Farm School To train for life in Canada boy, and girb from the L'nited Kingdom and to give them the enlarged oppor tu11ities of this Dominion. Objectives !:"' Ill To prov id(': :i;"' I . • • on-institutional atmo~plwrc h)· 0 :i: home life in cottage units. :i:"'... 2. Education under direction of Pro z 0 vincial Department of Education. Ill "' 3. VoC'ational Training in Agricul < "... ture for boys and Household Work 0 u for girls. :i;"' k Placement of children in suitahlr 0 ID occupations and environment at the age of 16 years . .3. Compuh,ory savings scheme of part wages. 6. Efficient aftt-r c·arc until 21 year~ of age. - 'Jur;J, The Fair bridge Farin Schools " Is this _a holy thing to see In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery Fed with cold and usur<;us hand? And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare A~ their ways are fill' d with thor:is ; It is etenzal winter there." Fairbridge Farm School Location The Prince of \Y ale Fairbrid~c Farm School is situated in the beau tiful Cowichan Valley, four and one half miles south of Duncan, midwav between ·x anaimo and YiC'toria, o'n Vancouver Island. British Columbia. Extent of Farm .J "' The property comists of 1,028 acres. ..< :r partly under cultivation. The farm i u .J well stocked with almost every vari 0 0 :r ctv of live ·tock. As far a. ,;ossible u it· is sclf-sustaininp; in orchard, gar IJ) "' den and other crops. Farm policy and "a ix development arc under the direction m of a Farm ~f anap;cr, with a compe C[ < tent staff. .. Religious Instruction The Farm , ehool is non-denomin ational. Religious instruction is pro vided for all under direction of their rcspcC'tive Church authorities. Services in the Farm School Chapel are held each Sundav morninp; for Protestant staff and cl;il " Is this _a holy thing to see In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery Fed wich cold and usur;us hand? And their swz does never shine And their fields are bleak and bare And their ways are fill' d with thor:is · It is eternal winter there." ' WILLIAM BLAKE Fairbridge Farm School Fairbridge Farm School Capacity of School Godparent Subscriptions \\'hen it r aches maximum size the A subs<•riber of ~1-'50.00 per annum. Farm School will contain 300 children, i.e. one-half the cost of maintaining 2,50 of whom will be of day school a child. becomes the godparent of a a"e and 50 of trainee age. Approxi child at the Farm School. The chilcl i:ately one-third of the ·chool popu will write to his godparent at regular lation are girls. intervah and the subscriber is encour aged to take an interest in the presl'nt Per Capita Cost and future welfare of his or her god To maintain a child at the Farm child. The balance of the child'., School require . ·:i5 per month or , '300 maintenance cost is made up from per year. This amount includes cost general funds. of food, housing, clothing, education, training, medical care, general upkeep Financial Support of property and administration. Hitherto this has come, both as to capital and maintrnance. in both small and large amounts, from innumerable subscriptions in the Gnited Kingdom. augmented by a British Government grant of five shillings per week pet child. Prevailing conditions h a \' e seriously cnrtniled this support. and fund. ar1• urgently needed from other sour<'lS in order that this Empin· pro ject may be kept alive. A COTTAGE MOTHER AND HER FAIRBAIDGE FAMILY e The ~ ~ Fairbridge c , Farm Schools ~ ~ i ~ ;;,c·, "Ifs this _ahholydtf:in!;_./ol lseed GJ" -: 11 a TIC an JrUl£JU an , Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand? And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, ~ And their ways are fill' d with thorns ; ~"- It is etemal winter there." ~ e_ ) WILLIAM BLAKE t ✓ ~ ~------i~ U//fr._ ) ~:H~-:Jlllr;J Fairbridge Farm School Helping the United Kingdcm and Benefitting Canada Fairbridge work helps th • people of the L'uitcd .Kin gdom by relieving them of the care of thc8t' boy, and girls. and it benefits Canada by pro ... viding yonng citizens trained to take z.. ,.2: part in the constructive life of our 0 .J country. a. 2: Contributions .. ~ .\II suhscriptions, large or ,mall, z will be ckcply appreciated. Cheque ;;< 0 should he made payable to Fairbridge ix m Farm Schools. Inc., and should be ad a: dressed to the Seeretary-Trcasurer, ...< 0 )Ir. L. A. Grogan. .. ~ < 61 J. Scollard Building, Victoria. B.C. a: or to ... < The Principal. Prince of \Y a les Fairbridge Farm School, D ~nean, B.C. The Fairbridge Farn1 Schools " Is this a holy thing ta see In a rich and fruitful land Babes reduced to misery ' Fed with cold and usurJus hand? And their sun does never shine And their fields are bleak and bare And their ways are fill' d with thor:is · It is eternal winter there." ' WILLIAM BLAKE F air br i d ge F a rm S ch oo l F airbridge F arm S chool ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Education Selection of Boys and Girls The Fairbridge Day School, whic~l all children must attend till age I.J, Children who come to the Farm is under the direction and control of School arc all selected by the Fair the Provineial Department of Educa bridge Society in the Cnitcd King tion, 11nd is separately staffed by com dom. The utmost care is taken that petent teachers. only healthy and bright children are chosen. Canadian authorities in Eng V ocational Training In land approve all children before th~y D ay School leave England. The a n·ragt· age at Every hoy and girl lws a three time of -election is 11 years. yt•ars' course in Agriculture in addi- 0tion to the ordinary subjects of the ~chool curriculum. A three years course is g;ivcn in Industrial Arts for the bo~·~ • and in Household Science for the girls. All these courses are compulsorv and are based upon the Home and Farm needs of the Farm School. T rainee Training After completing their ordinary day ~d1ool cours s at age 1-5 the boys and "irl continue in residence at the Farm ~ . A TRAINEE PLOUGHMAN School as trainees for one year, gam- ilw: practical experience in the n1ri nu~ hra11d11· of farm and Domcstit· work. The ~ Fairbridge ~ , Farm Schools ~ ~ ~ ;,G " ~:/~i;t/~~~ t,t}{1~~ i~~d, ,.,,,c Babes reduced to misery, Fed wich cold and usurous hand? 0 And their sun does never shine, ~ ~ And their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways are fill' d with thorns • ~ It is eternal winter there." ' ~) t ~ WILLIAM BLAKE 2 ~ ..______. ~ Ulllr.. M'5Yi~ · J'l-N--rJ Fa i rbrid ge Fa r m S ch o ol F air brid ge F a rm S ch oo l After Care An .\.ftcr-Care Offiecr of the Farm . ehool visits the young people at their work at regular intervals and at othrr time • when necessary. The purpose of these visits is twofold. vi,1. to aseer tain if thev are performing their duties in a· manner satisfactory to their employers, and to pren·nt their UI "'0 exploitation in employment. :, ".J E[ Savings Plan "u One-half of the cash wages is sen~ 0 monthh· bv the employer to the Farm "it m ,'chool · fo; deposit in the Bank Sav E[ ...< ings ,\. ceount of t he Fairbridgia1'. _in employment. At age 21 the I- air bridgian ha'i this accumulated fund for him'it·lf: till then he may not use it. This plan is intended to l'llCOtirag,• thrift and an ambition for independ t·m•t . The Fairbridge (' Farin Schools " Is this a holy thing to see In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand? And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare, And their ways are fill' d with thorns ; It is eternal winter there." BR!TISH COLUMBIA FAIRBRIDGE COMMITTEE 1940-41 + Chairman-R. W. MAYHEW, ESQ., M.P. Vice-Chairmen-P. B . FOWLER, ESQ. A. J . HENDRY, ESQ. secretary-Treasurer-L. A. GROGAN, ESQ J . A. BISHOP, ESQ. I► :, MAJOR HAROLD BROWN 0 z E . E . BUCKERFIELD, ESQ. I[ < m F . J . BURD, ESQ. l J . FYFE-SMITH, ESQ. 0 u I JAMES GOLDIE, ESQ. < COL. H. W . LAWS, C .M.G ., D .S .O . W . C. MAINWARING, ESQ. MAJOR-GENERAL V. W . ODLUM, C.B., C .M .G ., D .S .O . HUGH SAVAGE, ESQ. L . F . SOLLY, ESQ. CHRIS SPENCER, ESQ. HON. GROTE STIRLING, M .P . GEOFFREY WHITEHEAD, ESQ. \