FARM LABOUR PROBLEM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 142, 15 August 1941, Page 4

FARM LABOUR PROBLEM

Sir, —Now that all single men have been called up for Overseas Service the farm labour problem is becoming more acute. In fact it is desperate. Farmers who appeal for the exemption of single men hav« to submit to a third degree examination before the Boards set up hy tlie Government. The first question risked of the unfortunate farmer is whether his wife, sisters (if any), daughters (if any), and other female dependants can do' the single man's work. NonSrs-übt this is according to the instructions issued by the Government of the day la those appointed to hear appeals.. Why should this be allowed. Many farmers' wives are doing men' I *. Work outside their homes in addition to as. much housework and child-rearing as falls to the lot of the wives of town workmen. Apparently the Government of the day. In its enthusiasm for the 40-hour week, expects country, women to lake the place of men workers on the farms, but does not expect town women to helpi their husbands to the same extent. We have yet to see the wives of the carpenters and uainters employed on the local: State houses working away with hammers and paint brushes alongside their husbands. Yet it is no more unreasonable, surely, than the popular idea in Government circles that any farmer and his wife (no {natter what their ages) can look ■ifter a herd of cows. Many married couples are doing s.o, but tha* does not prove that all can or should.

To carry the illustration further, let us suppose that all t'he married men at the BEACON'S establishment were expected to bring their wives along to act as printer's devils (or whatever is the term fof those who assist). No, it simply is not done. This town attitude !<•» wards the farm labour problem ill wartime is the more unfortunate becausfe all that New Zealand is now exporting to pay the wages of the soldiers overseas and to buy rifles for the Home Guard etc., comes from the farms in the form of cow and sheep products. Yet the farmers are expected to carry on with depleted teams of workers while other industries, notably, State Housing, Racing, Brewing etc., can get as many men as they want to carry on "business as usual." But those flourishing industries do not supply any of the cargoes of the ships sailing for Britain, nor do tliey supply sterling funds or dollars with which Mr Nash has to pay for war expenditure overseas and for imports of all sorts) not forgetting the tea put into everyone's tea pot.< But the sheep and cow industries do*

Yours etc.,

MILK-O.