HOUSING OF FARM WORKERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4957, 18 February 1937, Page 3

HOUSING OF FARM WORKERS.

REGULATIONS ISSUED. Regulations governing the accommodation of agricultural workers were announced in the last issue of the Gazette. These provide for certain standards to be observed in respect of sites, the nature of the buildings housing the workers, heating, ventilation and lighting, and also sanitation and storage provisions. For the purpose of the regulations an "agricultural worker" means a person employed for any period exceeding one week in agricultural or horticultural or pastoral or flaxmilling or sawmilling work of any kind, but does not include a shearer within the meaning of the Shearers' Accommodation Act, 1919, or any person who is being trained at any institution established for the training of agricultural workers, or any apprentice who is bound by an indenture of aprenticeship made under the Master and Apprentice Amendment Act, 1920. After setting out the requirements of a site, which must be properly drained, located "at a sufficient distance from all animal pens, stables, sheds, or accumulations of refuse or offensive matter, and shall preferably be well sheltered and kept clear of all overgrowing vegetation," the regulations specify the type of flooring, walls, and ceiling and roof which are to be constructed. Every sleepingroom is to be of such dimensions as will provide not less than 60 square feet of floor space for each person

to be accommodated, and shall be not less than eight feet in height in any part. Not more than two persons shall be required to sleep in any one room, and each bunk or bed is to be provided with a spring mattress or a mattress of chaff, straw or kapok. Suitable heating appliances are to be provided in some convenient room or rooms.

Ventilation, lighting and sanitation requirements are specified, also obligations on the part of the employer for the thorough cleaning of rooms between the departure of one worker and occupancy by another, and on the part of the employee for the maintenance of cleanliness. Special conditions for temporary accommodation are also included.