THE FARMING STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 9

THE FARMING STRIKE.

IHEQVALITT OF WAGES. IiUJOUR-SUPrOKTIXG PEER. (From Our Own OnrrespanJiorVt.) LONDON, March 29. ff(! are just now in the midst of an unprecedented outbreak of strikes, and Hit connected with the industry of farminjjis. in a wu y> unprecedented also, for nothing so big has owurred since the depasiun of the 'seventies of last century, ihich was so severe that it demanded the toil of a Koyal Commission, which, a3 raaal, brought forth a huge harvest of Hue-books, the contents of which, proridbg no basis for practical measures, rave at least statistical researchers a Litlese opportunity for discussion. The strike for the moment is an East iiglian one, and its main point U that the strike is one against a reduction of traps. It will hardly be denied by New Zetland that a wage of 25/- a week, which is the rate proposed by the farmers ; in this area, would constitute a living i Mge for an adult single man, let alone i married one, and this is the rate which j tie agricultural labourer is fighting! ipinst. The extraordinary part ia tiiat I whin the area of the strike there are I ilready existing extraordinary differ- J aces, due to the fact that farm wage { regulation was stopped after the war, j md that is, in a way, something to be reguded as* putting the labourer's case in i favourable view. For it cannot , be rated in the free of that fact that alnidy there are farmers in East Anglia ite are paying 27/-, even 35/- a week Tributarily. Jt should be stated, , "too,' thit this diversity wage within East .\ng\is is not at all dictated by the proinctmtj of th» farms, but simply and *uV\y nj jearoess to' eoaie urban, area n-hick is tkfe to divert labourers to town writ Uw moment that the farmer lowers lis irige too much. i lia fis indeed a basic fact which no igrnttiirist. has denied, that the level of KigH throughout England has always ban dictated by proximity to industrial areU, and hot to prosperity or otherfile of farming conditions. He cue for the farmers, stated by the MereUrr of the Norfolk Farmers' Union, is tint the withdrawal of State aid, the mccesiion of bad years since 1019-20, and the competition of foreign corn, made thie fall in wages inevitable. Norfolk is Preeminently a barley country, and if a itt were: put on imported malted barley, ?«gee might rise 5/-. The strike will hit the labourers most vitally next winter, he ftvs, for farmers are refusing to plant foots, and there is, therefore, a danger of unemployment after the next harvest. We secretary considered that the f armere *tn thoroughly businesslike and up-to-lltt He doubted if matters could' be iaproved by the introduction .of new Btchinery, by artificial soils, or by cooperation: Something could, of course, fc done in ■ those ways, but the royal Hade out of agricultural depression were •tiliidy and protection. Excluding the oUto-growers of South Lincolnshire, lie Uoffolk fanners paid the heaviest wil wage bill in England , . They employed about four men to one hundred Kree, and if this did not become lesa Hinoualy expensive there would be a TOespread rotrru to grass. •Aβ it was, wUe farming was scarcely worth the aadle. On the other hand tho organising secre-ury-of ftu Agricultural Union ttidThat the slunip in corn was at least *rtial)y balanced by the rise in stock. We pige and nhecp had gone up in Woe, and when thu Canadian cattle ari™ and put an end to the Irish mono{ejy graziers would benefit. .Barley," he said, "has hit the farmers, Wthey dp not keep all their eggs'in the •• Miket." He objected to the farmers "nig their statistics from two bad J* I*'1 *' The offer to let the men examine "* tooku for those two years was not wugh. Agriculture must be considered Jwrt least eight years. Protection was «t needed; wages could be kept up with- .!* «• and wage-boards should be estab?Jw to that the whole question might Jp on a. static basis. Even in Norfolk j*™ were at present many local varia™Mi some'men getting us much as 35/-. i«WC«Iy anywhere in the country was the gWrnom below 27/-. In Devonshire, a W* minimum had just been fixed. Thus "•sorfplk farmers offer of 24/- for 50 : tol oe^* railt * eu ' asd 25A for 52 hours » 111 r for 6 * houra was unthinkable. •Ppuiid, to the ordinary heavy labourer, "«n it wpuld be inaccurate to describe S/-» t" Horsemen get an extra (/. ***» Md bullock feeders an extra .ai*,?' "iterest to state in connection k*Li * trikc ttat one oi tue g"" eat Lord Kimberley, that a Radical peer, is one of "Jγ *5» h»e espoused the cuuse of the SJ'Wht.hae been pa\ inj. :>i)/- a week, ■ U,e ca ? u itls " "" "'" & in S* ■fikT-5i c oi in NorJJVf*Bl Kimberley has a family history lijT .""Wee him to little fracas of this 2tt'«Vhsi fomer ,ord lent a hand in toi «. *******i> against enclosures nearly *tuL.« rt v Cable news indicated that a been arrived at, farm T*" living a slight increase in pay.