FARM WORKERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 16035, 16 September 1912, Page 6

FARM WORKERS.

j The Secretary for Labour, in his ! annual report to Parliament, has pointed to an evil that ought to have tho very serious attention of the farming community. Ho says that the recurring shortage of farm labour is duo in part to the custom of engaging men in the spring and discharging them in tho early winter, thus compelling thom to seek a livelihood in the towns until the busy season comes round again. The workers do not return to the country if they find work in tho centres, and the break in their association with farm work tends in any caso to encourage the movement away from tho land. Tho farmer will reply, of courso, that ho has no work for the men in winter, but largely that is a matter of arrangement. It might suit tho convenience of a city factoryowner to discharge half his hands for threo or tour months, but if he did this he probably would be found shorthanded when business became brisk again. Tho solution of the difficulty so far as the farmer is concerned seems to lio in moro intense cultivation than is commonly undertaken at tho present time, and in ihe provision of small holdings whore the workers can place their homes and find part-time employment. Land that' is being developed to, its full productivity requires labour all the year round, and it is obvious that the farmer makes a profit on his effort even if he suffers an immediate loss of a few pounds by employing workers in the off season, since ho is assured of a supply of labour when the busy days come again. Tho conditions that the Secretary of Labour has mentioned have been discussed many times, and practical farmers know for themselves how the difficulty might be met. But apparently many of thom are still acting as though farm, labourers could hibernate in the winter and resume their activities with the arrival of tho spring lambs.