Works May Miss Student Labour

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30964, 21 January 1966, Page 1

Works May Miss Student Labour

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 20. Freezing-works managers throughout New Zealand are hoping that if summer really comes it will come before hundreds of students, temporarily employed in freezing factories, return to the universities and colleges.

A sudden hot, dry spell would bring thousands of lambs in for slaughtering. At present they are being kept back to eat the increased grass growth on farms caused by the unusually long, wet spell. “We may never even have a peak of killings." a spokesman for one freezing works said today. “It all depends oh the weather. If it stays as it has been we will get steady killings all the way until June,” he said. "Naturally we would like that, because although we would lose the student lab our, our permanent men would have steady work until the end of the season.” However, good weather during the last four days has brought an increase in lamb killings in the Manawatu, Wairarapa, and Wellington areas. This season the Department of Agriculture expects a 7

per cent increase in the total number of lambs as a result of a 3.6 per cent rise in breeding ewe numbers and better lambing conditions in the South Island.