SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 113, 6 February 1941, Page 9

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Farmers’ Evidence To Forces Appeal Board

MAINTENANCE NEGLECTED Dominion Special Service. WANGANUI, February 5. Problems of farmers in the Wanganui district caused by the shortage of labour were referred to in appeals made to the Wanganui District Armed Forces Appeal Board against overseas service with the military forces today. Several appellants said it was impossible to get labour and it would not be in the best interests of the country if men working for them had to go overseas. The chairman of the Wanganui District Primary Production Council, Mr. W. Peat, said the position on most farms was that maintenance work had to be neglected so that the available men could be kept on production. The chairman, Mr. A. Coleman, S.M., said he realized that it was necessary that pastures must be maintained for increased production, but he stressed the need to replace eligible single men with married men wherever possible. Mr. Peat said that much -back-country land that had been brought into production when labour was more plentiful was going back because of the labour shortage.