"DESPERATE STATE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 230, 29 September 1942, Page 4

"DESPERATE STATE"

FARM LABOUR POSITION

CONCERN IN THE WAIKATO (0.C.) HAMILTON, this day. Ever since the new drive for increased production was launched in July, the Waikato Council of Primary Production has been very concerned whether there will be anywhere near an adequate supply of labour to make this possible. However, the council was assured by the Minister of Primary Production, Mr. Poison, that men would be released from the Armed Forces where it was shown that farms were understaffed to such an extent as to make maximum production impossible. Upon investigation by the Waikato Council it was found that the labour position on farms in the Waikato was in a desperate state in numerous cases.

Mr. R. A. Candy, chairman of the Waikato Production Council, said Army requirements were such that only a very small proportion of the men appealed for had been released. Intimations from the army that practically no men between the ages of 21 and 41 could be released had still further restricted the possibility of meeting urgent requirements of the primary industry. "The council therefore feels that it is its duty to make public the position," said Mr. Candy, "as. if no improvement can be made, a definite fall in the production is inevitable Many farmers' wives, with young children, are endeavouring to fill the gap. Many have already broken down in health because of the strain and it is inevitable that still more will follow if the balance between the requirements of the Armed Forces and primary production is not restored to some measure of equilibrium."