INCREASED EFFORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 87, 12 April 1940, Page 8

INCREASED EFFORT.

DOMINION PRODUCTION.

FARMERS WANT HELP

(By Tflograph.—Own Correspondent.) WHAXGAREI, this day. Production is the lifeblood of New Zealand and at tlie Labour party conference Mr. Xasli made the |K>int that further progress must come from increased production on the part of th ,- workers." said the chairman of the Dairj Bonrd. Mr. W. E. Hale, at the ward conftrence in Whangarei yesterday.

''One would be more hopeful of tfw future if one saw some evidence that certain factions of workers —such as »lie wateriiiders—were showinjf reco«rnition of the fact that only liy increased efficiency can better living conditions in , secured. Dairy farmers who are tied under the gimraiitec price to very liivli standards of efficiency, arbitrarily imposed by the Minister, feel that it i* time that efficiency of a similar nature is demanded from other sections of th? community. There is a feelinyr in all country districts that the effort required to produce a very modest living from dairying; is much jrreater than that r <"- quired from the majority of city workers and that hours and conditions of work compare very unfavourably."

He estimated that from 20 to 25 per cent of those men who had gone overseas were farm workers. The Government did everything it could to help, improve the position. Its efforts were, however, only partlv effective. The only way to prevent the farm workers going, "and the only way which was fair to them, was either to have conscription or, at the very least, to have a national register of manpower. The truth of the matter was that to-day production was so vitally ini|Nirtant from the viewpoint of tJreat Britain that a trained farm worker was of greater value in his job than in a. uniform. The three ways by which the farmers could he assisted were through an increase in the guaranteed price to cover increased costs, subsidies on fertilisers, wages, etc.. or. preferably, reductions in costs, Mr. Hale said.