SHORTAGE OF FARM LABOUR.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1883, 31 March 1913, Page 2

SHORTAGE OF FARM LABOUR.

GROWING MORE ACUTE. The shortage of farm labour daily grows more acute, writes the Timaru correspondent of the Lyttelton Times. Farmers in this district are finding it impossible to procure ploughmen. No fewer than sixty applications for men were received in one day by Mr Thoreau, the secretary of the Farmers' Union, but most of the positions are still going begging. In many cases high wages are offered, one employer giving "£2 and found," but the situation still remains unfilled. The dearth of men would appear to be general, for one farmer tried both Christchurch and Dunedin without success. Possibly as the various threshing mills finish ti, Mr season some men will be avail but only a portion of the millhands are competent ploughmen, probably onethird, and the demand is likely to continue to exceed the supply. The effect of this shortage of farm labour is patent. Teams are remaining idle, and land which farmers desire to crop is still in stubble or lea, and the only result that can follow will be a further diminution in the area cropped next year. One farmer has two full teams remaining idle. Discussing Mr Massey's statement to the effect that the farm labour which is required in South Canterbury is as scarce in England as it is here, a gentleman, prominent in agricultural circles, told a reporter that while admitting that immigrant farm labourers required some "breaking in" to New Zealand conditions, they were very welcome to 'farmers, provided they were willing to learn (and he added that men did not come 18,000 miles to loaf), for as a rule immigrants remained longer in a position than the average colonial. Thus it was worth a farmer's while to go to some trouble in training an immigrant, since he could expect a reasonable return for his patience. The situation in South Canterbury is acute, and the district would welcome with open arms a whole shipload of farm workers for its ownTrequirements.