New Zealand farm workers sought

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 16

New Zealand farm workers sought

During the next few weeks New Zealand farm workers will be offered organised travel, a guaranteed job, high rates of pay, and the chance to see European farming first hand.

The offer will come from Mayday, the biggest farm labour agency in England. It is being made at a time when English dairy farmers are facing a labour shortage which is so severe that many farmers are giving up milk production because they simply cannot get anybody to milk their cows.

“We have never needed the help of New Zealand stockmen as badly as we need them now,” said Mr Gates, the managing director of Mayday. Mr Gates will be arriving in New Zealand next Saturday and will spend six weeks touring the North and South Islands interviewing prospective employees. “Although we are most interested in finding a large number of single, good herdsmen, we are also desperate

for tractor drivers, shepherds, pigmen, and farm mechanics,” says Mr Gates. “We are offering a minimum of $4O a week up to $66, depending on experience, with plenty of overtime and free board and lodgings.” Mayday is organising the “airlift” of New Zealand farm workers with Dalgety Travel. Eight to ten different departure dates will be offered from March through to September, 1973. “I am confident I shall find the men we are looking for,” says Mr Gates. “Our service has used New Zealanders in the past, and we have discovered that they are hard working, high spirited, and keen to have a go in a strange country.”