FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 69, 14 December 1907, Page 3

FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

INTERESTING .EVIDENCE.

; '/(bt .-telegraph—special correspondent.) KW-- Chrls'tchurch," December',l'3. /^lne. evidence given'bofore the Conciliation •BpSrd.-'at Timaru yesterday hvthefarm labourers;' case,was important from the,, employes.'/i?°^- < > t . v ) o ) v - .' Ono witness, a young Victoria;. contrasted the condition '".fihe/farm. labourers, in Australia with'- that 9f,-.'']?ne;",wpi'ker':-.in'. New' Zealand, the'cnrii'panson ;being : all, ■in .favour.:of.,the' latter; He came-, to.; New Zealand . five .'vears ago', without;-money,' arid !obtained em'plovment the'day-after, he landed-.'.. J He- had'" saved' money, .enough- -since.-coming.' to.'g'pt» a .small' leasehold 1 ; farm.;.and,; to. stock",i.t.' besides, which he Had; sent, monev. home" to his par-ent's'in-Victoria.' :• He s .'had "earned 155. 1 .'a week on:',the. fa'rin, in 'Aii'stralia, ,: an'd'2ps'. : whs rccoguised .there,-.as .a' harvester's !w,ige. Oh coming to. New Zealnnrl-,"at 'his''first' joh'he got. 205.-a. week- at different'sorts of work,' and, 30s. 1 , during'harvest.! This was'in'North Canterbury,;, On/going to South Canterburv |he. got 20s."a week'for ploughing first; H«ri later on, got 225... 6d. and.."2ss. -per week, under the -demands of'the Union', witness : (lid not .think, he could put in eight hours •P f'ay- .He believed. in contract work. It gave" a .willing man a chance to make'a little, extra. The. farmers.,in New Zealand seemed to be ,very sociable, and thevand their men got: on ve'rv well together. H.o would say that; boy labour as well as'a.rlu'it .was. .better, paid" in: New . Zealand', than in Australia. -Since'.coming, fo'.'tho. Dominion he had sent for , : his. two, younger brothers, who had;been .earning os. and l'7s. pnr week respectively. ,arid they were, getting 225. '6(1. per. week each' in. New Zealand.

... .Another, witness ..said, he had .mot with no, dissatisfaction,among farm labourers. He thought the dissatisfaction.' was .being 'manufactured .for them. ' .', The opinion ho had no/! rd .expressed was .that- the. Union .was stirring up-strife.-unnecessarily, and .that.it was'..a pity, they did "not turn to. and do a bit ,pf work themselves. Th.v conditions or labour had steadily improved during the past fifteen years-.

-A young farm labourer was. called to show that jt,was quite possible for farm labourers to.save money. He had been left.'an orn.lian.;.aiifl up to the age of twentv he had worked:for the man who had brought him up. (a poor many, at' ten shillings a .week. After that he. went.out shearing,, tbroshine etc.,-and. af the age .of, thirty : was able to buy.the sixty acre farm he' was now on at temnka out of. his savings. He would not think . 0 f joining the Union, and -was of opinion that their demands were absurd and incapable .of being applied in. a practical way .to farms. (

An Australian .witness said that he would sooner have a married 'couple's billot on a fn.rui m New Zealand' that 'be. farming on Ins own account in, Australia. ■■ '.■ The. last witness heard said that from what he had been told, the genuine farm labourer looked., upon the.,demands of the Union'as a huge joke. .■•-...,..