MECHANICAL LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 43, 20 February 1929, Page 15

MECHANICAL LABOUR.

APPLICATION TO THE FARM.

DEMANDS Or CIVILISATION.

LOW LABOUR COSTS OF EAST.

Western ideas are gradually !>eing adopted in the East, but it will be many years before mechanical methods replace the present primitive means of cultivation, used there because of the cheap cost of labour.

This is the opinion of Mr. Cyms McCormick, jun., vice-president of the International Harvester Company, of Chicago, who arrived in Aucklandyesterday by the Uliniaroa from Sydney. Business has brought Mr. McCormick, who is accompanied by his wife, to New Zealand, and it also attracted him to Australia, Japan, China and the Phillipines. Boon to Anglo-Saxons.

"In Anglo-Saxon countries farming could not be carried on profitably without mechanical appliances that assist the primary producer to compete with countries that have cheaper labour costs," said Mr. McCormick. "For instance, it will be a long time before the present means of cultivation in places such as Java are departed from. There labour is worth Id an hour, while in China, where the labourer is advancing gradually, the unekilled worker earns rates ranging from 1/ to 1/6 a day. On the face of it, it will be seen that it will be many years before mechanical labour replaces that type of wage* rates. Mechanical labour is an example of sophistication and highly developed civilisation that demands a reasonably high standard of living. It is introduced in proportion to the progress that ia made in this direction."

Mr. MeCormiek said that the Philippine Islands and Australia were enjoying reasonable prosperity. Things were certainly more prosperous in the Commonwealth than they were, eay, six years ago. No countries of the E*attern Pacific had adopted machinery for agricultural purposes more readily than Australia and New Zealand.

The most interesting phase of farming to-day was the growth of mechanical methods of handling produce, and the application of power, through the agency of tractors, to the land.

Mr. and Mm. McCormick's sojourn in New Zealand will be of short duration and they are scheduled to sail for Australia and Europe on March 1. Mr. MeCormick, although enly 38, ha* had a most interesting career. He graduated from Princeton University, and then took a two yeans , course in history at Oxford graduating B.A. During the Great War he joined the United States Air Force, but did not reach France.