AN URGENT RURAL NEED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 203, 25 May 1944, Page 4

AN URGENT RURAL NEED

Action by the manpower authorities to provide domestic assistance on farms is long overdue, and the announcement by the Controller of Manpower (Mr. H. L. Bodkett) <?f a scheme which promises some relief in this direction will be widely welcomed. In the campaign for increased primary production it is essential in many cases that the domestic position of the farmer be taken into account. If adequate domestic labour is not available, it often becomes impracticable for the farmer to engage extra assistance for farm work, and therefore—to all intents and purposes—impossible for him to undertake a larger productive programme. In cases where farmers wives or members of their families divide their time between domestic duties and giving help about the place, the engagement of extra farm labour may mean the diversion of. family assistance exclusively to domestic duties, with the result that the net gain by way of productive labour may be very little. There is also the personal hardship which many rural residents have endured during the last two years or more as. a result of the acute shortage of domestic assistance, particularly in homes where there are invalids or young children. The demand for labour for war and essential civil industries in. the larger centres has removed many young women from country districts, and in- consequence farm housewives —whose need of help in the home is apt to be much moie real and urgent than is the case with town residents—are, if possible, even worse off than the urban section of the community, notwithstanding the fact that the domestic welfare of the farm, closely linked as it is with the economic welfare of that industry, is of vital, importance to this Dominion. To this must be added the national social problem as represented by the drift of young people from country to town, a trend which has been widely encouraged by war conditions, but which might be appreciably corrected if young people were .gradually introduced, or reintroduced, to life on the land by way of domestic service assignments. ■ It-appears to be the intention of the Controller of Manpower that the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union together with the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children should undertake to canvas their various districts and advise local manpower officers of necessitous cases. These officets will, in turn, endeavour to fill vacancies by directing to domestic work women who are not required for other “higher priority employment At the same time the officers will endeavour to foim a. reserve pool of women” who can he directed to part-time or periodic domestic work in their own districts. This seems a promising beginning. and no doubt the women’s organizations appealed to will cooperate readily. It is evident, however, tliat tinder existing woman,power conditions only a.limited supply of labour will be aval.able for domestic service after “higher priority” demands have been met, and to meet the rural problem adequately may necessitate a definite allocation of suitable labour, preferably of a volunteer nature, for the purpose. .