PUBLIC WORKS AND FARM LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21908, 8 October 1936, Page 16

PUBLIC WORKS AND FARM LABOUR

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —I have read with, interest letters written on the subject of public works and farm labour by farm labourers, and a very good case they state, too, but I should just like to point out to them and to the public in general that the public works are not just as many seem to think. Now, in the camp I am in there are 20 to 30 men, and after enquiring thoroughly I have discovered that their average earnings a week for the last four or five months amount to about £2 10s. This is without paying for stores, etc., which amount to about £1 a week; so that leaves them 30s a week clear. Added to this, they have the drudgery of cooking their own meals, carting wood, washing clothes, etc. So, taking everything at its real value, the two jobs in question are very much on a par, save perhaps for the 40-hour week on public works. As for contract work, well, what extra goes into the pocket comes out in sweat. Mr Semple is very quick to give a daily average of the earnings, but he does not mention our weekly average.—Yours, etc., EMPLOYEE, P.W.D. Bealey, October 5, 1936.