FARM LABOUR IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2409, 15 March 1915, Page 6

FARM LABOUR IN ENGLAND

AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM. ("Timei" and Sydney "Sun" Bcrtices.) k London, March 12. Sir Rider Haggard, the well-known novelist, in a letter to the "Times," states- that if the cost of farm labour increases ho will be obliged to dispose of his dairy farm. "It is an economic d question of the' first importance; Engi- lisliwomen will not return to the old e habit of farm work, except under actual want. With few exceptions, the wives and daughters- of small holders help the men folk ; occasionally the ( wife' of a farmer of the better class will assist, but her daughter will not." Personally, Sir Rider Haggard does not favour the employment of women, e except as dairy maids or to tend pouly try: "Young women are scarce in the e rural districts. Most of them can e marry. The rest go to the towns, cr whither the men follow, causing depopulation. • , The colonies desire women s of between eighteen and . thirty years of i age who are prepared to work till they ' are married to young men reared on . tho land These classes in _Britain are a almost exhausted. This is . a grave •- menace, to the Empire. We are tryd ing to hold nearly a quarter of the e earth with about sixty million Anglo- [. Saxons, and the task is as much as we n can do. If the number shrinks it will soon be more than we can. do." He suggests an immediate competent inII vestigation of the whole land problem.