Farm Labour

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21857, 10 August 1936, Page 10

Farm Labour

In his speech on the Public Works Statement in the House of Representatives Mr Semple returned again to a discussion of the difficult problem of farm labour. It cannot be said that his latest pronouncement on the subject is any more hopeful than what he has said before. “ We do not intend,” he said, “ to start “a stampede from farms to public works. We “want those men (the farm workers) to keep “ their jobs and give their fellow citizens who “ have been out of work a chknce. If any “ specific cases are brought to my notice I w ill “ deal with them.” Neither this, nor the Minister’s further statement that he will dismiss men from public works who go there from farms, can be taken very seriously. Mr Semple must know well enough that he has no power to dismiss a man for exercising the most elementary rights of economic freedom. Any worker is entitled to take the job which will give the highest reward to his skill and industry. The Government admits that it has created a difficult problem for farmers by raising public works rates to a level which, in his present economic condition, tne farmex- cannot possibly afford to pay. Much of the work done on farms is of the same class as that done by employees of the Public Works Department, and it is therefore inevitable that there will be some shortage of farm labour. The farmers are entitled to know what the Government proposes to do about it; and they will not be impressed or reassured by Mr Semple s airy confidence that he will solve the problem by the economic methods of the Middle Ages.