THE GREEDY FARMER

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 913, 11 January 1918, Page 8

THE GREEDY FARMER

The Shortage of Labour Dodge. rip HE dismal whining and wailing: - a - which have gone up from the farmers as to the alleged shortage of labour will be taken at its real value by those who know the facts of the case. The real truth of the matter is that the majority of farmers want labour at their own price, and that price is often, quite out of proportion to the cost of living and to the expense incurred by men in travelling about in search of work. We are informed by a ton gentleman who has been visiting the South Island that last week therewere some three to four hundred men in Christchureh who had been attracted there by reports which had appear-' ed in the press as to. the scarcity of harvesters. It was said that the. farmers were paying from two shillings ■an hour, but when the men reached Christchureh the wages offered were from Is 3d to Is 6d. Harvesting operations in most districts were late, and the majority of the imported labourerswould have to stop in Christchureh and pay high rates in the boardinghousesfor at least a fortnight. One man told our informant that he would like •to get hold of the people who put these misleading reports in the papers. After paying return fare to Christchureh and return fare, to the Ashburton district, plus a fortnight's board in town, "one -and sixpence an hour isn't good enough." We are no. supporters of extremist trades unionism, but the selfishness and greed now being displayed by so many New Zealand farmers will, if persisted in, bring about the formation of a rural workers' union for th© Dominion. It is no wonder that the workers -become tainted with "Red Fed." ideas when they are so meanly treated as so many country wdrkersafe by a class of men who, more than any other class, are heaping up fortunes' by the high price of produce.

Up=to-Date Rhymes. (For the i\.Z, hree Lance.) .-Said tlie Hon'rable Myers, "I am v pleased to relate The peace we afll want comes in One-nine-one-eight. -And the Allies will get the big end of the gate— I'm an optimist, that you. may punt on." "It's a pernicious speech/' wrote a local kewpie, "Peace cannot_be here before One-nine-two-three. The 'Ignorant Public' can take that from me— I'm a pessimist." —Signed, Ernest Munton. It appears they're alert in the Grand Old Country, -Miss Marie Corelli they 'fined heavily; •She had quietly bought up a big chest of tea, .... ' To refresh the good friends who cajole her. Sir Somebody Yapp, the human blood hound, . . 'Gets keen on the scent with his nose to the ground, .Betrieving the buyers of more than a. he's a real Food Controller. -Of a new piece of strategy I'm the recorder, . , ■, j -Field-Marshal Haig has just cabled this order: , - "To hem in the Germans the length ot the border. . I need five thousand sewing machines." And, speaking of cables, the one,that gets me . -011 Was sent by .Bill Hughes to our Bill -OnfSlfon thick pairs of all-wool socks"—you see Australia has cold feet. My brave Hindenburg, to my nation diffuse I have won this great war. leli me how could I lose? „,_,._ , The Australians won't fight; I must. thank Billy Hughes . . And Gott for their help," said the Kaiser. But the time's coming soon when these words he'll regret, - . For there's something the lunatic seems to forget: Our Second Division his troops has not met; ~ , When they do he'll be sadder and wiser. . ■"I wouild not join the 'clique' now I've no beer to sell," Said the shrewd licensee of a Christchurch hotel; ■"But I've issued a writ, and perhaps it's as well, The excitement will keep me from dozing. f.'With the barmaids expecting the same salary ,As I paid them before they had their evenings free,

I am sure a cool thousand will • compensate me— There's no 'hoot' in this six o'clock closings" If Von Luckner should read these pages by chance, It will please him to know he led Jimmy a. dance, Which would not have occurred if Jim read the Free Lance, For it warned him the door was ajar. As paper is scarce, let me say in conclusion, Kerenski has fallen among the vconf vision ; And Trotski must fade like a spirit illusion— He's as big a success as the Czar. —Hank Portere.

Dux of Te Aro School, 1917,

Gremany's fond hope is that under the specious cover of "no annexations" she will strike a. vital blow at British supremacy in the East and so. win the war after all. Krupp's pet organ — "The Rheinisch Westfaelische Zeitung"—says with refreshing candour that "no' annexations" will destroy British supremacy from the Gape to Cairo, and via Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia to Calcutta. Furthermore, it declares that the German evacuation of Belgium is conditional on the British evacuation of Egypt, and adds, "The abandonment of Egypt, Arabia, and Mesopotamia spells the collapse of British world-dominion." # * # *