DAIRY FARM LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21990, 14 January 1937, Page 8

DAIRY FARM LABOUR

“SHORTAGE CAUSED BY PUBLIC - WORKS WAGES” (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, January 13. “The shortage of dairy farm labour especially in South Taranaki and tl\e Auckland province, is a reality,” said Mr A. P. O’Shea, Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Dairy Farmers’ Union, to-day. “The cause is undoubtedly the disparity between the wages paid by the Public Works Department and the rate the dairy farmer is able to offer.” , The Farmers’ Union, Mr O’Shea said, was fully in sympathy with the desire of the Government to improve the conditions and wages of farm workers; but it held that those wages must be based on the ability of the industry to support them. “The labour shortage will grow worse,” said Mr O’Shea, “because the farmers are not’ in a position to offer a wage that will stop the drift to public works.” What the farmer required was a general scaling down of both farm running costs and his personal living costs, otherwise any improvement in export prices and any assistance by way of exchange or a direct bonus were largely nullified. It was only in that way that the level of farm wages could be brought nearer the general wage level, and the drift of labour away from farms checked.