SHEARERS’ ACCOMODATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume LI, Issue 5343, 2 December 1919, Page 3

SHEARERS’ ACCOMODATION.

DEPARTMENT'S INSPECTOR’S VIEWS.

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE AMENDING ACT.

Mr J. Jackson, inspector for the Labor Department, Wellington, under the Shearers' Accommodation Act, has been for some months in this district inspecting* accommodation. He returned to Gisborne from the northern districts last week, after inspecting stations in the Tologa and Tokomaru districts. In all he visited about 100 stations, and in conversation with a Times reporter, Mr Jackson stated that the shearers' accommodation m some places was first class, in others tail, while a number were not up to the mark. Requisitions were served m all cases where the accommodation was not up to the mark. He found that most of the requisitions which had been served during his visit m April, had been complied with. ! . He recognised that the farmer m the backblocks had a great difficulty in getting timber to their stations for the purpose of complying with requirements. For instance, one man, with a station 40 miles from iokomaru Bay. told him that it had cost £6 to eait 4,80 feet of timber from the Bay to Ins station. It could readily be imagined that when carpenters had been paid is an hour, and with the other charges, the cost of erecting buildings was veiy heavy, and it hit the small farmer hard! Notwithstanding that, the farmers he had found, were cheerful and willing to carry oat instructions, provided that a reasonable notice was Sl Tho Shearers 'Accommodation Amendment Act of 1919, which comes into force on June 1. 1920, required those putting up new accommodation to provide a room for every two persons employed. These rooms, in order to get the required number of cubic feet of air space would have to he 10 leet. by 12 feet by 8 feet. A separate room was required for the cook, this meant that a farmer employing 30 hands would require 15 rooms, a room tor the cook, a dining room, a kitchen, and a room for washing and drying clothes —nineteen rooms in all. ih® onginal Act of 1908 merely required the provision of “adequate and sufficient accommodation for the shearers, he matter being left to the mspMtois. Different inspectors, liowevei, had tilt ferent. ideas of wluit was required, an it was felt that regulations were neces",*The top bunk bad been a complaint from time to time, and its remove had been asked tor. this had been fairly readily agreed to by most of the farmers. If was realised that rlieie was a difficulty in getting a Maori to sleep on a bunlc two feet irom the </round, so the difficulty with a high bunk was much greater. .\n anomalv was occasioned by the Amending Act, for while an oral laborer was required to 1 1 a%e 300 cubic feet of air space, a (lax-mill band 400 feet, a shearer was allowed 480 feet. The shearer only resided at the most for three weeks each year in the accommodation, whereas tne others were permanent residents. One shearer told Mr Jackson that his employer, after examining the specifications, expressed tne opinion 11 1 <it lie would have to put up a niicKiugham Palace! ' Anyone putting up new accommodation would recuiiro to do so under the new regulations, as they would be in force by the time the next shearing season commenced. Mr Jackson is at present in the Whatatutu district, where he expects to be engaged for about 10 days. He will then proceed to Wairoa, visiting stations on the way.