NOT REALISED?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 267, 10 November 1937, Page 11

NOT REALISED?

FARMERS SKILLED WORKERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MORRIXSVILLE, Tuesday. That the farmer with many veare of experience on the land wa« just as much a skilled worker as any tradesman was an opinion put forward at a Farmers' Union meeting at Morrinsville. Exception was taken to the action of the Government in calculating the living expenses of farmers at £4 a week, plus £1 10/ for house and food grown on the farm. It was suggested that this wajre of £ii 10/ a week did not compare well with the wages of skilled workers in industries enjoying a 40-hour or 44hour week. According to a recent decision of the Arbitration Court skilled workers were to be paid 2/9 an hour. On that basis a farmer working 60 hours a week should be allowed an income of £8 5/ a week. The president. Mr. R. A. S. Browne, said the aim was to ensure a return for farm produce that would enable farmers and their employees to secure incomes equal to those of skilled workers in other industries. It seemed that the Government and its advisers had failed to realise that the farmer was a skilled worker.