The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1907. A Treat for Farmers.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 274, 24 May 1907, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1907. A Treat for Farmers.

There is a time coming for farmers which cannot fail to stir them up nu.ch more effectually than any Laud Bill yet devised, unless we are sadly mistaken, ani that will be when the provisions of the Arbitration Act are applied to the teims upou which they aie to deal with their employees. A few years ago, such a thing woull lave been looked upon as a dream ia tho realms of romance, but there ia no doubt as to its practical application. Hitherto the business folk have been the only ones troubled in the matter, and it is a pitiable sight to witness the proceedings in the Arbitiation Court, where decent, respectable citizens are herded together in crowds and penalised heavier than if they had committed crimes for the fearful offence of employing men in unskilled trades who were not members of a union or of the particular union affecting that trade. To say, for instance, that not only shall a girl not be allowed to act as a waitress in a tea-room unless she is a member of a union, or that an employer ma> not employ a man out of charity, unless he is a member of the union governing that particular occi pation, seems the height of absurdity ; but that is the law. We published tho other day 'the demands of the Agricultural Union which comes before the Arbitration Court in Canterbury soon, one of which provides tlat preference of employment must be given to members of Ihe union. Under these demands day labourers are only to work 84 bours a day for five days a week, and 4$ hours on Saturday; general farm hands are only to work nine hours a day, etc. Wages are specially fixed, meals, meal hours, and other privileges particularly laid down. Eight special holidays are to be allowed, besides a week in May and a week in November, every year, at full pay ; the work to be done by boys is specially restricted; and goodness only knows what else. The whole tling reeks vith pitfalls for farmers, vho will have to have the conditions explained to them— like other employers — per medium of the Arbitration Court, at a cost of from £2 to £10 an interview. _____ _— — _