CAN THEY BE PLACED?

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 78, 4 April 1910, Page 7

CAN THEY BE PLACED?

MARRIED IMMIGRANTS WITH CHILDREN. THE DEPARTMENT'S EXPERIENCES. Recent cable messages from London and Australia in regard to the question of finding employment on farme and stations in the Commonwealth for married immigrants with children have caused increased attention to be devoted to this aspect of the labour question here. Enquiries made from responsible .officers of the Labour Department show that exceptional trouble is taken 'to "place" farm couples with children, because they are regarded as being *the very best class of immigrants, as they have an effective anchor with them, and usually come to stay. The experience of the department U that if a married couple is wanted on a farm, couples with children are generally barred. This is very often owing to want of the necessary accommodation in the house of the farmer. In this way the work of the department is limited to a great extent, as the majority of applicants for farm work have either one or two children. It has been tound, however, that many employers take a fair view of the position when proper representations aTe made to them by the department; and they will often engage a good couple even although they may happen to have one or more children. It may be added that in the cases of married couples being wanted for positions on farms it > is more ofter the services of the wife that are in requisition rather than those of the husband. The domestic eervant difficulty has become so acute that married couples are >iow often engaged for farms when it is really the wife's services alone that are required. A good domestic in a farm household can command at the present time £52 (and found) a year, whereas married couples can be got for as low as £72 (and found) per annum. An efficient ploughman and farm labourer, with a wife who is an efficient general servant, will not accept under £120 a year. It is recognised by the department that it would be a great advantage if some scheme could be adopted that would assist them in readily "placing" on farms married couples with children. The bulk of married immigrants who arrive here would prefer to go straight away to positions where they would have a chance to acquire some local farm knowledge, to help them later on when they acquire a section of their own. In cases other than those of farm labourers, where married men have arrived with large families, no difficulty has been experienced, the department states, in '..'placing" the whole family, with the exception sometimes of the father. Here is a case in point. A man recently arrived with a wife and family of seven children. Five of ihe children were of working age, and they were all placed withic five days after their arrival. Th 6 earnings of the family * (not including those of the father, who did not at once obtain work) amounted to £4 7s a week. The father was a carpenter, and, his business being slack at the time, he did not get work for two months. Generally speaking, if the children of working age are prepared to go into, factories, there is ample room for them at good wages. At 14 years of ago they can secure work at 10s a week for a start. There is at present a great demand for the services of boys and girls in the cities and country towns — indeed, it is represented that many- industries are being hampered owing to lack of this class of labour. Overtime is being worked in many factoiies to cope with the orders.