TOMATO GROWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 12

TOMATO GROWERS.

40-HQUR WEEK ISSUE.

DIFFICULTIES DISCUSSED.

LOSS OF FRTJIT INVOLVED,

At yesterday's meeting of the new Auckland Commercial Gardeners' Association, the question of the 40-liour week proposals was one of the main points discussed.

According to the vice-president, Captain A. A. Currey, it would mean the loss of three-sevenths of the fruit during the flush of thf season. On the Saturday and Sunday no fruit could be picked or marketed, and would therefore spoil. On the Friday any fruit picked would be lost, too, because it could not be sold till the following Monday. And as no picking would be allowed on the Sunday, no fruit would be ready for Monday's market.

On working da£s, too, Captain Currey continued, work had to be done by the suii, not by the clock. If work was not to begin till 8 a.m., the fruit would be overheated, and would quickly become too ripe for packing after being pickcd. In addition, work would be most unpleasant in hothouses in the heat of the day.

Higher Wages Impossible. At the recent Dominion conference of tomato growers in Wellington, Captain Currey stated, he had heard of a market gardening labourers' union formed in the Hutt Valley. They were claiming, in addition to the 40-hour week, much higher rates of pay— £0 per week for foremen, £5 tor other adult workers, and double pay for overtime, week-end and holiday work. This was intended to become Dominion-wide, and since then a similar union had been formed in Auckland.

Already many tomato growers and other gardeners were producing at a loss owing to the competition of the produce of sweated Chinese labour, and of underpaid native labour in the Cook Islands. The result had been in the past a glut at the height of the season.

These problems, Captain Currey asserted, must be solved before a 40hour week or higher wages could be borne by the industry.

Other members agreed that very few of them were clearing £5 a week. Their costs were high, and all their requisites —manure, coal and eases—bought in a heavily protected market. On the other hand, they sold their fruit in an open market, for what price it would bring.