FARM LABOUR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 92, 29 January 1934, Page 7

FARM LABOUR.

EMPLOYER COMPLAINS. “AIEN WANT TO PICK JOBS.” 1 (Special to the “ Guwdian.”) AUCKLAND, Jan. 26. “Alen seeking farm work apparently want to pick their jobs and are demanding wages it is impossible to pajr at the present price of butter-fat,” writes a Putaruru farmer in a letter to the “N.Z. Herald.” He had replied to all the advertisements from men wanting farm and gardening work during the past two months. “What is ruining the farm labour market is the Government system of relier works,” the farmer adds. A single man aged 33 whose advertisement the farmer answered replied that he had accepted a temporary position doing private gardening ancl milking one cow near the city. 1 will be pleased to take a job later on in January at £1 a week and found, the letter continued. “I prefer a job at gardening and odd jobs, assisting with housework if required, and miikino- four cows. I do not like milkingmachines'. I have had enough of machines to last me a lifetime. Another man, who said the object of his advertisement was to obtain a position at a private home, to milk a house cow and do gardening, worlsin<r 48 hours a week for small wages, wrote: “I hav£ had a lot of replies. I am now suited at an Auckland home. While thanking you for your offer, 1 must say that farm -work, with its attendant train of misery—long hours, mud, indifferent treatment, and no recreation —does not appeal to me. Besides, I have only to walk half-a-mile to the Labour Exchange and I can get dozens of farm jobs at from 10s to 25s a week. , “I have been on several farms and they are all alike. That is the reason why I and hundreds of others unless they get a personal recommendation leave farms severely alone. I would want 25s to 30s to work on a farm for the 96 hours of work. If the fuimers had only made things a lit o more congenial on farms m the pasi , with a day off occasionally and no working in pouring rain and only treated men like human beings, they would not be experiencing the Double they are now having m proem mg labour.”