Want Emergency Regulations Applied To Farm Labour

Northern Advocate, 24 June 1941, Page 6

Want Emergency Regulations Applied To Farm Labour

[Special to "Nortfiern Advocate”! AUCKLAND, This Day.

Speaking with reference to the present lack of farm labour, the placement offeer (Mr J. A. Elsbury) told members of the Primary Production Council this morning that he had inquired into the position, and so far as his office was concerned there was only one man available, and he had already been found a position.

“I called for applications for the footwear school which is to be started in Auckland,” said Mr Elsbury, “and among the 200 applicants I was amazed to find a number of men who had had farming experience. “I weeded out some of them, but found that they would not accept farm work, the reason being that if they did not get into the boot school there was plenty of casual work about the city for fit men.”

j Compulsion Not Desirable Mr Elsbury added that men could be forced to return to the farms under Emergency Regulations, but it was not desired that this step should be taken unless it was absolutely necessary. He remarked that the Government was forcing men to work for 7/ a day in the Army, while in other trades where a state of emergency existed—as in' the shipbuilding trade—higher wages were being offered. The chairman (Mr R. C. Clark): It seems to me that some scheme could be evolved by those in authority if they wished to do so —even if it meant getting Public Works huts. Mr Elsbury had referred to the difficulty experienced in the Whakatane district over the harvesting of maize and he commented that there were 300 to 400 men at present doing “sea-gull" work on the waterfront, quite content to stay in town so long as they get two days’ work a week. Should Not Be Coerced Mr H. Barter stated that he considered men should not be coerced to work unless they were paid at a standard wage comparable with that cf other industries. He suggested that if the price for butter-fat were increased, farmers could afford to pay higher wages. v After further discussion the council approved of a motion moved by the chairman: “That from the point of view of primary production, and in view of the present shortage of farm labour and the likelihood of the position becoming still more acute in the near future, the provisions of the National Service Emergency Regulations should be applied to the organising of such labour.”