ACUTE SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23554, 4 February 1942, Page 4

ACUTE SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Serious Effect On Fruit Production STATEMENT BY GROWERS So acute is the labour shortage that the production of fruit and Dies >s necessarily restricted and before long will be even more restricted, Mr_C. E. Pope, president of the Tomato and Stone Fruitgrowers’ Association, said last evening in a statement to “The Press.” “All growers are seriously ‘up against it.’ and things are getting worse. It is useless to advertise—men who are not already in camp are waiting to go, including some of the proprietors themselves.” Mr Pope said. The work which had to be done, and had to be done at once, was not suitable for women, and generally it took six of them to equal the work of one man, Mr Pope said. Members of the Women's Land Army were quite satisfactory picking cherries and raspberries, for instance, but they were useless for the hard work connected with tomatoes. Some girls had suffered serious effects when they had. attempted the work. In the intense cultivation needed for the production of fruit and vegetables, labour had to be continued without breaks—when the work got behind it took three times as long to do it as ordinarily. Mr Pope said. Serious losses in quantity and deterioration in quality must result when the fruit was not picked when it was ready—and that is what is happening, definitely. The position next season did not look as though it would be in any way imnroved. and if something was not done then growers would not be able to plant their crops—they would have to sow in grass, Mr Pope continued. “Even now wc cannot get through the work; and more and more men are going info camp. In Great Britain the growing of fruit and vegetables was classed as essential, only second to the production of milk—and that surely was what should be done in New Zealand. However the Minister for National Service had promised cooperation, and men would in the future be appealed for more than had been done in the past. The Shortage of Petrol Mr E. Freeman, president of the Waimairi Fruitgrowers' Association, agreed with the position as stated by Mr Pope, and added that the shortage of petrol was probably causing as much trouble as the shortage of labour. As petrol was reduced to the grower so production was reduced to the public; and at present stocks were almost if not completely gone. So bad was the position that some of the older growers had made up their minds to retire from their farms altogether. The only thing that would save the situation was the realisation of the promise by the Government to release more men.