FARMERS AND LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16741, 23 December 1914, Page 6

FARMERS AND LABOUR.

If it were true, ns suggested by Mr George Sheat at a Farmers’ Union meeting yesterday, that distrust between Capital and Labour is “ turning New Zealand into a sheep walk,” tho situation would demand immediate attention. The question of work and wages, of tho proper relationship of tho employing and the employed classes, is admittedly a problem difficult and complex, and although some of the greatest minds have studied the subject exhaustively it has not yet been the happy experience of any country to find a solution. But we had thought that something, even something appreciable, had been accomplished in this country during tho last twenty odd years to narrow tho gulf separating the wageearners and the wage-pavers. Tho Legislature has devoted a large part of its activities iu this direction. It has striven to place the various industries on a basis fair and equitable, in tho interests of all concerned. Has it failed entirely, as Mr Sheat suggests? Hoes there still exist, after all tho heavy endeavours of statesmen and of Parliament to improve tho situation, such bitter distrust between Capital and Labour that this Dominion is being turned into a sheep walk? We hesitate very much to accex>t such a confession of failure. Mr Sheat was prompted in his remarks by the shortage of wheat, which he apparently attributes to' the excessive wages demanded by farm labourers. But tli9 rather acute deficiency that is threatened is principally due to tho state of the crops, it being estimated that the coming harvest will yield only about twenty bushels to the acre, and even a Conservative like Mr Sheat will hardly suggest that the labour unions or the Arbitration Court have exercised bad influences on tho weather. Tho fact that grain-growing does not tend to increase very fast in this country is probably due more than anything elso to tho greater inducements offered by the manufacture of butter and cheese for export. Not long ago a high authority in Wellington predicted that New Zealand would soon reach its maximum production of meat for freezing because farmers were being tempted from pastoral to dairying pursuits—which certainly does not coincide with the idea that the country is being converted by labour’s avarice into a sheep walk. Wo are fully prepared to admit that with an abundant supply of cheap labour it is probable that more land would be laid down in wheat than is now the case. But an abundant supply of cheap labour does not appeal to us as a thing to 1)0 desired, especially for use in a sphere that offers only casual employment. We are as anxious as anybody to see the farmers prosper and are glad to know that they do, and everybody would liko to see ulieat grown in at least sufficient quantity to supply our own domestic requirements. Nothing, however, is to bo gained by taking wrong views of the situation.