LABOUR FOR FARMS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 12

LABOUR FOR FARMS

WAGES AND CONDITIONS

UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD'S

POWERS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, This Day.

Additional measures for dealing with the shortage of farm labour were announced today by the Hon. S. G. Smith, Minister of Employment. The Minister stated that when complaints tha; farmers could not secure labou.- became prevalent the Unemployment Board communicated with the Farmers' Union to obtain information on the extent and nature of the problem. This consultation was still going on, and on its completion the board proposed 16 discuss with the union certain steps to overcome the difficulty.

The Minister pointed out that the board's bureaux were primarily labour exchanges, although they had come to be regarded by the public purely as relief depots. It would assist the board if farmers would inform the nearest certifying officer of any vacancies and supply particulars of wages and conditions. The board had statutory powers by which it could render useful service to the farming community where local officers were satisfied that the wages and conditions of farm employment were reasonably satisfactory. Iv Taranaki, as a result of a conference between the Unemployment Board and branches of the Farmers' Union, a local arrangement had been made by which the question whether wages and conditions of any farm vacancy were reasonable would be decided by a committee of representatives of the Farmers' Union and the Unemployment Board. The board would ba pleased to make similar arrangements in other districts where difficulty in providing farm labour was being experienced.