SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 14

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

OTAGO FARMERS' DIFFICULTY WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE FIELDS The acute shortage of farm labour in Otago which was evident at the present time was discussed at length at the meeting of the Otago Provincial Council of tlie New Zealand Farmers’ Union yesterday. It was pointed out that while men of a certain standard were available, it was almost impossible to obtain competent men. It was suggested that a solution to the (problem would be the adoption of methods of farming which would eliminate the need for so many farm workers, the most effective means to that end being the use of better farm machinery. Mr Waite said the problem of farm labour was a general one all over New Zealand. There were more women and children working in cowsheds and on haymaking fields than for many years. It was no new problem, but it had been aggravated by the public works wages fixed by the Government. How were they to get over the difficulty? The Minister of Public Works had described the cry of a labour shortage as a political move by the Farmers’ Union. The Minister of Agriculture, however, had disposed of that remark when be admitted at Flock House a grave shortage of farm labour. Farm machinery and implements of all kinds had increased rapidly in the ipast 10 years, but Still the shortage was acute. As far as he could see there were two things farmers must do. They must make farm life more attractive and at the same time they must try and do without labour. New machinery and new methods would provide a way out, and with a fuller use of them farmers could easily devise means of doing without men. Then when public works contracts were not so numerous and men wanted to go back to the farms they would find no jobs for them. Mr Stuart Sim said the use of machinery was undoubtedly increasing, and in some instances fanners were getting over the difficulty by employing gins. There was no question about a shortage, and although production was not likely to suffer in the meantime, such work as the maintenance and repair of buildings and fences was being neglected. Mr A. Spoor (Pine Hill) said that farmers were not only unable to compote with public works rates, but many of them could not even pay the £2 2s 6d a week provided for dairy farm workers. Mr A Renton (Stirling) said the difficulty was that there was a dearth of competent men. Farmers could get men from placement offices who could carry on in a sort of way, but they could certainly not earn their money. Mr R. J. E. Smith (Wedderburn) said that in Central Otago it was almost impossible to get good teamsters and harvesters, and with the high price of rabbitskins the shortage would become still more acute before the autumn was over, because men were anxious to start rabbiting earlier than usual. Mr A. C. Cameron said that there was no doubt about a shortage of farm labour,- but the statements made by speakers that day were too general, and could be too easily cried down by, reference to placement officers and the men they had waiting for work. The difficulty was that farmers would not go to placement offices because . the type of man available was not suitable. Mr C. J. Inder said that the Government insisted on a wage the farmer could not pay, and that was one of the causes of the shortage. More machinery was not the solution, because man-power could not be displaced on the farm. Mr G. P. Howell (Middlemarch) said that at the present time there were more women engaged on barley harvesting in the Lake County. On the Crown Terrace and Hawea Flat there were three or four women in every paddock, and in one crop he saw six women at work, and one of them was building the stack. It seemed to be the same everywhere ho had gone in the Lake County. Mr Stuart Sim moved—“ That despite Ministerial assurances to the contrary, we know from personal knowledge that there is a grave shortage of competent farm labour in Otago, and that women and children and machinery are doing much of the work previously done by men.” The motion was carried.