TO PLOUGH AND TO MOW

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16193, 20 March 1913, Page 4

TO PLOUGH AND TO MOW

WHAT THE FARMER EXPECTS OF HIS LABOURER. COMMENTS BY PRIME MINISTER. EXPERT IMMIGRANTS NOT AVAILABLE. [From Our Correspondent.] TIMARU, March 19.

A review of the immigration problem as it affects the farmer was given by the Prime Minister to-day in reply to a deputation from the Timaru Farmers’ Union, which urged increased activity in tho importation of farm labourers and domestic servants.

Mr Henderson said that although there was no scarcity of labour generally, farm labour was very scarce. Suitable help for tho farmers’ wives should be obtained by immigration, as many farmers’ wives were ruining their health by the heavy demands of tlieir work. A man, lie said, should be sent from New Zealand to England, Scotland and Ireland to pick up farm labourers, and liis wife to pick up domestics.

Mr C. N. Orbell said that practical farm labour was very scarce, and few men could work every implement on a farm. The reason of the scarcity was the settlement of large estates, and nobody complained of it. The farmers were losing the best men, and the Government, having created the scarcity, should make it good by immigration. _ He himself would have to reduce his grain-growing by half if assistance was not forthcoming. The Prime Minister said that the subject was a difficult one. “ Most people imagine, ,r he said, “ that there is an unlimited supply in Britain of the class of men that Canterbury farmers require as their assistants. The term farm labourer is loosely applied. You want a skilled mail, with almost as much training as an ordinary mechanic. 1 had an opportunity of speaking _ with Sir Rider Haggard on the subject, and he expressed the opinion that the class of men the Canterbury farmer required was as scarce in England as in Now Zealand. The Canterbury farmer wants a man who can take out a five or six-horse team, take care of the. horses and harness and work them in a triple-furrow plough. Along towards the harvest you want him to put the horses in a binder, working the machine with skill and care and doing a good day’s work, a not unreasonable task. Then you want him to take out a mowing machine and so on throughout the whole year. Well, there are no such men in England. There are plenty of good men in England, but they have not had the training. Farm labourers in Canterbury need not remain farm labourers for very long. They t receive good wages, and if they are careful, thrifty, trustworthy men in a short time they become farmers themselves. I see it quite clearly that you want a continual supply of men, but they come here not as trained men, but to be trained, and after a few years they do all the work required of them.” “ I have come across scores of men,” he continued, “ who have told mo it is impossible to continue cropping operations, and it will have an effect that the public generally and the people in towns do not notice. If the farmer of Canterbury, the granary of New Zealand, limits his cropping operations, New Zealand will cease to be an exporting country, and we will have to import wheat and flour, and up will go the cost of living.” “ So far as ordinary immigration is concerned,” Mr Massey continued, “ wo are experiencing no difficulty. Assisted immigrants are limited to farm labourers and domestics,, and in each c'ase only a small proportion of The passage money is required, but I have como to the conclusion, as far as those two classes are concerned, . that, we shall have to do more. It is satisfactory to know that New Zealand is the most popular British dominion as far as intending immigrants are concerned, and in the last eleven months the excess of arrivals has been 11,000. A very email proportion was assisted, and I do not suggest that the whole 11,000 were labourers. Many have capital, and intend to go Into business or take

up land. The Government recognises the difficulty, which is accentuated in Canterbury more than in any other part of N r ew Zealand, because more skill is required here. We intend to go on as we have been doing, and shall probably ask the House for an increased vote for farm labourers and domestic servants. That is all we can do. and it will be done.”

In reply to a question Mr Massey said that assisted immigrants were required to have a small sum on landing so *as to insure that they would not immediately become a charge on the State, and even if the money were raised by loan it was a guarantee of good character. He added that the dominion agents were attending the fairs at Home, where suitable immigrants could he found. In addition, a number of colonials going Home had offered their services in the selection of immigrants. The offers had been accepted, and good work was being done.