LABOUR TO HANDLE FRUIT CROP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 December 1940, Page 4

LABOUR TO HANDLE FRUIT CROP

DIFFICULTIES EXPECTED IN HAWKES BAY PACKERS SCARCE [United Press Association] HASTINGS, 9th December. Difficulty in procuring sufficient labour to deal with the season’s fruit crop is expected by Hawkes Bay orchardists because of many of the regular workers being engaged on military service. In comparison with other fruitgrowing areas, such as Nelson, there is little female labour employed in the orchards, and this year for some unexplained reason there is little juvenile labour offering, though in other years boys and girls have done much of the thinning and picking. It is suggested that if the women of the district made their services available they would assist considerably in solving the orchardists’ difficulties. Packers, who are among the skilled classes of orchard workers, are likely to be difficult to obtain, and for this reason the Department of Agriculture, as in other years, is prepared to enrol prospective packers to receive instruction at classes which it will arrange.