FARM LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 229, 20 June 1908, Page 4

FARM LABOUR.

A young man who has had some experience of farm labour gav? us for publication in our Tuesday's issue his grounds ■ for dissent from Mr. M'Nab's recent observations upon the scarcity of agricultural labour.. It' is possible that Me. M'Nab slightly over-stated the position, ,but tho general experience of farmers largely supports his views. There is no doubt that good farm labourers are becoming most difficult to obtain, and that the trouble will be accentuated in tho near future. In spite of the good wages that are being offered, the supply of farm labour is falling off, and as the best farmhands generally develop into small farmers, requiring employees in their turn, and as the further opening-up of land in this island will require .a great deal of fresh labour, Me. M'Nad looks forward to an intensifying of the shortage. He has no remedy to suggest beyond the diversion of the casual labour of the cities into tho channels of rural activity. How he intends to do this he docs not say, nor are we, any more ready with a means of inducing the>city "casual", voluntarily to turn his back upon the fascinations of tho town and embrace the more wholesome but less exciting life of tho farm-hand. ' In fact, we believe that lie will not do it. For a remedy we must look in another direction, and the only prospect of securing tho labour so urgently required,it a vigorous encouragebioat of tho right £iifd of immigration.'

The demand of local men for land'will continue for a long time to meet the supply, provided that the Government realises before it is too late that the farmer should be left free from legislative experiments. There is, accordingly, far less occasion to encourage the immigration of small settlers than to bring in the farm-hands without whom the, country cannot be developed. There is still in Great Britain a fountain of agricultural instinct which may be drawn upon to yield a good/supply of sturdy fellows willing and able to follow their bent under ,the superior conditions that rule in New Zealand. The whole prosperity of the country is bound up in the soil, and such a shortage of labour as Mn. M'Nab anticipates will have the most serious results for us all. The efficiency of agriculture varies directly, as the ability of the agriculturist to get his land tilled, and if he cannot obtain labour the whole cpuntry must feel the effects. This is surely the least appropriate time that could be chosen for harassing the already embarrassed farmer by a complicated network of conditions and regulations. The Canterbury agricultural labourers' disputo is about to be made the subject of recommendations by the Conciliation Board, and before long we may .expect some kind of an agreement or award. Comment upon the details of this dispute are, of course, not permissibly as yet, but this much may be said, that it is vory unfortunate that the dispute _evcr arose. We have more than once dissented from the very widespread feeling that the Act while it stands should not be allowed to be invoked by agricultural labourers. At tho same time, we believe with everybody else that a complicated award that is well "enough in a city factory is entirely 'unworkable on a farm. There is no reason why such provision should not be made as will ensure a reasonable wage to farm-hands, and an amendment of tho law is required that will restrict any further interference than this with the farmer, whose work, like that of a jour-, nalist or a doctor, : or oven, for that matter, of a Prime Minister, cannot go on under a rigid code of cut-and-dried conditions. Mr. M'Nab appears to have persuaded a Wyndham deputation that farmers are needlessly alarmed,' but it is notorious that the moment a bodv of men ccme under an award, they develop a litigious habit of mind, and farmers hayc therefore good reason to fear a source of friction that will paralyse their business. '