FARM WORKERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 250, 30 July 1940, Page 3

FARM WORKERS

EXPERIENCED MEN AVAILABLE.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (Special to the “Guardian.”) WELLINGTON. July 29. “There are still a large number of experienced farm workers awaiting engagement,” said the Minister, for Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb), in an interview to-day. He said that apart from nearly 1500 experienced men enrolled with the State Placement Service, there were nearly 1750 experienced workers at present employed on various State works who were ready to transfer to farm jobs as soon as required. More than 1600 unexperienced State employees were also availalbe ii wanted.

“Jn everv instance these men on State undertakings who are shown as available for farm work have volunteered to take it up because they are eager to assist the farmer and the Government in carrying out New Zealand’s part in the war effort,” the Minister said. He also elnphasised the advantages attached to engaging married men. Thero was a marked tendency on the part of farmers to apply for young single inexperienced men, whose wages could be subsidised under the IF subsidy scheme. Already in July 135 men had been placed under this scheme, and the bulk of them had been young and single, a type that was becoming much more difficult to provide. Gn the other hand, the Minister said, departmental statistics showed that at July 19 there were available 2213 experienced and 2438 inexperienced marrid men, taking into account State employees who had volunteered for farm work. There were also 969 single experienced men available at the same date; hut a large proportion of them lived in t)ie Slouth Island, where the demand was not yet so great.

Mr Webb urged farmers to take single or married experienced men wherever possible.. There would be no objection to farmers expressing a preference for men i\l their applications; but they would greatly help placement officers if they would agree to take married men when others 1 were not available. Many of tlie married men, ' both experienced and inexperienced, were prepared with the accommodation, allowance being paid by the Governments, to go on farms without their families, and he regarded from the point of view of farmers as single employees. The Minister said that since the beginning of July the Placement Service had filled 488 farm positions, and 42 of the men placed had been State employees.