SHEARERS’ AWARD

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24547, 21 April 1945, Page 3

SHEARERS’ AWARD

JUDGMENTS AGAINST FARMER CONTRACTS ABOUT NUMBER OF SHEEP A judgment in connexion with shearing contracts was given by Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Culverden on Thursday when the Inspector of Awards (Mr C. P. Collins) claimed 18s (being the balance of money allegedly due to R. A. B. Kingsbury) and 16s (being the balance of money allegedly due to Graham Dalzell) for their employment by D. W. Davison, farmer, of Culverden (Mr A. C. Perry), under the Shearers’ »afad Shed Hands' Award. A penalty of .£lO was also claimed for an alleged breach of the award in failing to pay the shearers in full for all the sheep arranged to be shorn. Kingsbury said that he and Dalzell had been engaged to do Davisqn.’s shearing. He communicated with Davison on Sunday morning (January 7) and said they would arrive to shear the following afternoon. As the weather was unsettled, he asked that the sheep be put in a shed. Kingsbury claimed that,’ under the award, he and Dalzell were entitled to know the number of sheep to be shorn. He had been told 800. ' Similar evidence was given by Dalzell. It was admitted in the claim that Kingsbury actually shore 333 sheep and Dalzell 390. In evidence, Davison agreed that he had spoken to Kingsbury by telephone, but said he did not remember whether a number had been fixed. As requested, he placed 350 of the sheep in sheds;. 80 in his own and 270 In his sister’s shed. The sheep were drafted about 9 a.m. on the Sunday and put in the sheds just before rain began to fall. During a break in the weather they were, let out, but were put under cover again at night. It rained heavily on the Monday morning. Defendant said he realised that it would not be possible for the shearers engaged to finish until late on the Tuesday, and not wishing to keep the ewes away from their Jambs any longer than necessary, he arranged with another man to shear the 80 in one shed to speed up the work. Kingsbury and Dalzell were Informed of this when they arrived: but after they had finished shearing, they included In the bill the 80 sheep already shorn. Davison said' he did not pay the account because it Included the sheep shorn by the other man. The Magistrate held that as the award provided for the number pf sheep to be shorn to be agreed upon before shearing was entered upon, there was a contract to shear the number which had been quoted on the Sunday. He said he would not express an opinion as to whether Davison's action was justifiable, but in acting in contravention of another man’s legal rights the other man should at least have been consulted. He did not agree with the contention for defendant that a shortage of 80 sheep was sufficiently "approximate” and Indeed the defendant himself had said that this term would not cover more than a shortage of 10 or 20. The Magistrate drew attention to the loose terms of the shearers’ award and compared it unfavourably, with share milkers' agreements with which he had had experience in another district. Judgment for plaintiff was given in each of the claims for wages, and a penalty of 30s was imposed for a breach of the award. WHEAT FOR SEEDING NEW TESTING BASIS A new system of showing the results of wheat germination tests at the Palmerston North seed testing station has •been adopted. To provide a workable basis* for wheat seeding the total growth of samples under test is being grouped into four classes, as follows: (a) Seedlings of high vitality and germination speed—first-class seed. (b) Seedlings of lower but fair vitality, and/or of slower germination speed—fair-average seed. (c) Seedlings of low vitality and of slow germination—low-grade seed. (d) Seedlings very weak and abnormal—valueless as seed. This grading of seedlings is carried out at specific stages in the test, and with the use of controls - of known standard. It is suggested that the percentages in the respective classes can be used to provide an indication of the proportion of seedlings which could reasonably be expected to emerge and establish under field conditions. Provided that wheat is dusted shortly before sowing, the aproxhnate percentages of field emergence may be estimated as follows; (1) For first-class sowing conditions —classes (a), (b). and up to half of (c) (2) For fair sowing conditions—classes (a) and (b). . (3) Unfavourable sowing conditions —class (a). . , For obvious reasons—in particular the existence of a very wide, range of sowing conditions—a fine degree of precision cannot be expected of this service. Nevertheless, it is honed that it will at least provide a useful guide to the selection of seed wheat from partially deteriorated lines. A sample test for one local farmer showed the percentages under the four gradings as follows; —(a) 8 per cent, (b) 80 per cent., (c) 2 per cent.; and (d) 1 per cent., dead seed 9 per cent., or 89 oer cent, for first-class growing conditions. SOLDIER FARMERS INSTRUCTION IN MIDDLE EAST “A number of men who before the war could not take up farming, because of financial difficulties, will probably do so when they return,” said Sergeant N. Mahon in an interview yesterday. Sergeant Mahon, who conducted a farm training scheme at Maadi, also directed a young farmers group (incorporated in the Education Rehabilitation Service) on board the ship. He is a member of the Omihi-Scargill Y.F.C. and was also a member of the Lower Hutt Farmers Association, a group formed in the 2nd N.Z.E.F. base in the Middle East. The men were very keen to take advantage of this scheme, said Sergeant Mahon, and the Government loan service offered ideal opportunities for the younger men who were returning. The course in operation at Maadi covered a nine-day period, and included instruction in mixed farming, and dairy and sheepfarming. The main aim of the scheme was to get the men interested in civilian life again, and enable them to rehabilitate themselves successfully. A number of farming specialists were discovered on board ship, and lectures were given on such subjects as Clydesdale horses, poultry, wool, lucerne, artificial insemination, grasslands in India, and farming in Scotland and Palestine, as weH as advice in picking a farm. Much use was made of the text books and pamphlets supplied by the Education Rehabilitation Service, and in conjunction with this group a farm book-keeping class was held. Shirley, writes that in the year after he left school, which was in 1885, he helped to lift a crop of chicory in St. Albans, somewhere near what is now Innes road. He cannot remember who owned the crop, but he thinks it was shipped at Lyttelton to some coffee company at Dunedin. “J.C.” does not think the crop was a new one 59 years ago. and suggests that members of the late Mr Roberts’s family could give some interesting information about chicory growing in South Canterbury. Growers of subterranean clover will be amused at the following, culled from the British “Farmer and Stockbreeder,” written by one of that journal’s special contributors:—“ Attention is being given to the discovery by N.F.U. delegates in New Zealand of a ‘new’ clover which may ‘revolutionise’ our home agriculture. I cannot helo thinking that this particular plant has not escaped the eagle eye of Sir George Stapledon or of Lord Bledisloe. As a matter of fact this discovery (subterranean clover) was under test at Aberystwyth more than 20 years ago. As we have heard little or nothing about it since, there must surely be some snag to it. Memory tells me that it is an annual and that in the comparatively mild and wet climate of Wales it was possible, by timing the sowing, to secure from it, as a catch crop, some valuable winter keep. In this respect, however, it wills less productive, less reliable, and more expensive than Italian ryegrass. It may also be included in temporary ley mixtures, where it will re-estab-lish itself by self-seeding if put up for hay. After shedding its seed the plant dies. Incidentally, we already have an analogous winter annual, yellow suckling clover.”