PLAN TO INCREASE PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 2, 27 September 1939, Page 5

PLAN TO INCREASE PRODUCTION

Volunteer Labour Corps

WORK ON FARMS TWO DAYS A WEEK

Dominion Special Service.

DUNEDIN, September 26.

Realizing the importance of increasing primary production iu the Dominion So as to supply Great Britain with increased foodstuffs and other necessary material, the Dunedin Junior Chamber of Commerce has evolved a scheme which embodies the formation of a volunteer labour battalion to assist farmers in their work.

It is suggested that a force of 25,000 meu could be formed to work two eighthour days a week, and, while the junior chamber foresees difficulties in its proposals, it believes that, out of its constructive idea, some scheme might be evolved to solve the labour troubles of the farmer at present. With this end in view members decided at a meeting tonight to forward proposals to the Council of Primary Production, which will meet in Wellington on Friday. “The suggestion is put forward,” says the report, “in the form of a proposal that volunteer labour battalions could be formed by the Government throughout the Dominion. The men could be properly organized on parallel lines to their military counterparts, and could be expertly directed into productive channels, consisting principally of agriculture on existing cultivated land leased by the Government for the purpose and, where ecorfomic —since no wages are involved- —of bringing into production waste land and new land.” Such an effort, it is contended, is a national and perhaps Imperial necessity, and it is considered that volunteers would readily offer their leisure time free provided the fruits of their labour went to a proper source.

'As a basis, it is suggested that two days a wgek could be given by the force, say Friday and Saturday, involving as they would portion of the individual’s leisure time and portion of his employer’s. This would thus call upon the patriotism of both worker and employer, and would not necessarily hinder the progress of normal industry and commerce. It is understood that there are between 100,000 and 150,000 men in New Zealand of military age, and, were it possible to obtain from these ranks a force of 25,000 men, willing to work two eight-hour days a week, a total of 400,000 working hours would result, which could' be expected to show some increase in the agricultural production. The chairman of the junior chamber, Mr. I. M. Armour, told a reporter that the proposal was not a scheme designed to provide members of the chamber with an easy job during the war. The junior chamber would take no part in its organization, and he pointed out that already SO per cent, of its members had enlisted in’ the special force, in the Territorial Army, or one of the reserves. “It is merely the 'basis of a Domin-ion-wide scheme,” he- added. “It appears that the Government is anxious for suggestions and it is our hope that it might be able to evolve an entirely suitable scheme from our proposal.”