LAND GIRLS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3105, 13 April 1942, Page 5

LAND GIRLS

ENROLMENTS IN PAEROA VOLUNTEERS WANTED SOLVING MANPOWER PROBLEMS A section of the Women’s land Corps is now being formed in Paeroa and enrolments from local girls are being taken by Mrs E. Turton. This service, newly set up by the Government, is under control of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary, and is intended to relieve the difficulties farmers are experiencing in the matter of manpower. The girls are placed in positions by the State Placement Officer after consultation with a representative of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary. The Land Corps has been organised on the lines of Britain’s justlyfamous “Land Girls” scheme. Farmers and their wives are encouraged to take the volunteer girls into their homes and provide for them as much of the family life and comforts as possible. Aid On The Farms The fact that lack of of manpower for farms is a major problem in the Thames Valley and. Hauraki Plains is clearly demonstrated by the large number of appeals by farmers and on behalf of their employees at every sitting of the Manpower Committee and Armed Forces Appeal Board. Girls who volunteer for farmwork are regarded as doing a direct service to the nation in its greatest time of need. No compulsion is to be exerted on them to work on farms where accommodation and conditions are not reasonable or where they are not given the considerations to which they are entitled. Wages are generous. A. starting wage of 35s a week is to be paid to girls volunteering for work on dairyfarms, with 30s a week to girls on other kinds of farms. After six months’ service, women on dairy-farms will receive a minimum of £2 2s 6d a week, those on other farms 35s a week. Free board and lodgings are to be supplied by the farmer. The first set of overalls will be supplied free 'by the Land Corps, and after a month’s satisfactory service a free uniform will be issued. At Least One Man An official stipulation to which all farmers intending to accept workers from the Women’s Land Corps must agree is to the effect that there must always be at least one man able and available to undertake the heavier farm duties. Farmers are requested also to make every allowance for inexperience on the part of the girls. The scheme has been instituted because of the necessity at the present time of releasing still more men from primary industries for active service against the enemy at New Zealand’s front gate, also because it is vital to the Empire’s war effort — more so than ever before —to keep the great food-producing industries in full swing.

The girls are becoming encouraged to remain at their assigned posts for the duration of the war, but there is actually no compulsion upon volunteers to do this.