HARVEST LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12402, 16 January 1901, Page 6

HARVEST LABOUR.

It seems, from tbs reports 'of our country correspondents,i that there is very little ground for -the apprehension of the Mayor of Ashburton that there will be a scarcity of labour during the approaching harvest. We are told that in North Canterbury there are plenty of men awaiting employment, and that in South Canterbury there is no fear that the farmers will have any difficulty in gathering their crops. The position- may he different in the Ashburton -district, but the fact that more than seventy men waited upon Mr Friedhmdeir, at very short notice, to protest against the proposal to suspend the cooperative works during the harvest season suggests that there axe a- good many idle hands even there. Seventy men would not, of course, go very far in satisfying the demand for labour that is likely to arise in the great grain-growing area lying between the Ra-kaia and th© . Rangitata Rivers during the next few weeks, but we presume that those who interviewed Mr Friedlander were only representative of a much larger number who are carrying their swags about the country. Perhaps the Mayor of Ashburton was alarmed by th© report that the men had formed a kind of irregular union among themselves, for the purpose of obtaining an ■ excessive rate of pay fox harvest work, and was anxious to give the farmers timely warning of t-ha combination that- had been formed against them. This is evidently the idea of the local newspaper, which writes as if, th© men were encouraging the nation that there is a scarcity of labour. Bub- we think it will he found that they have no intention of demanding exorbitant wages, and that they are quite- capable of dealing with the, exceptionally heavy harvest that is premised. If additional hands should he required, the Labour Depa-rt-ment could easily put them in the .field without -delaying important public works in other parts of the colony. Mr Friedlander has done quite right in calling attention to the matter in good time, and! we are sure that the fanners -of Ashburton will appreciate his concern on their behalf; but w© do not believe that there is the slightest necessity for importing labour to. the district while the .present supply jg available.