Training For Settling In Canada
TRAINING FOR SETTLING IN CANADA
Ex-service men’s centre near Cardiff
For the second year in succession a number of ex-service men and their families are undergoing training at the British Legion Emigration Training Centre at Wenvoe Grange, near Cardiff. On completion of the course, which will last several weeks, they will be sent out to definite jobs on Canadian farms. Last year 38 families were trained and sent out, and reports received by the Legion show that 80 per cent of them have proved successful. An after-care organisation keeps in touch with them in their new life, and is able to offer advice and assistance which are of the greatest benefit to the newcomers in their unwonted surroundings. Many of them have not only discovered new interests in life but have been able to save considerable sums of money, which will serve to set them up in farms of their own when they have acquired the necessary experience.
The number of families undergoing training at Wenvoe at present is 15, consisting of 30 adults and 38 children, but it is hoped to increase the number to 20 families before the end of the month. The board and sleep at the Grange, a fine old mansion conveniently situated near the main road leading from Cardiff to Barry; and while of necessity the life is largely communal, every endeavour is made to preserve the family units as much as possible. Every family, for instance, has its own bedrooms, and opportunities are provided to enable them to live a normal family life so far as practicable.
The men are taught mixed farming on the farms in the neighbourhood. They leave the centre in the morning and return home for the midday meal, if within a convenient distance: otherwise they take their luncheon with them. Work is carried on until about 6 p.m. Women receive instruction in milking at an adjacent farm and in breadmaking at the centre. In the evening there are lectures on various branches of agriculture by the Glamorgan County Council instructors, and bootmaking, haircutting, and rough carpentry are taught. In addition to board, all at the centre receive pocket money during training. Children of school age attend the local council school.
Times 10 March 1931
