THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1908. AGRICULTURAL LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13765, 2 June 1908, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1908. AGRICULTURAL LABOUR.

The annual conferences of the provincial branches of the Farmers' Union, which prelude the general conference of what may easily become the most important of national organisations, show a universal and increasing tendency to carry agricultural difficulties into the domain of politics. As we have frequently pointed out, this is inevitable, unless the greatest of all our industries is to be legislatively and administratively subordinated to political conditions which the tens of thousands who are actually engaged in carrying it on have no influential voice in establishing. Every session sees matters of extreme importance to every farmer in the Dominion dealt with in a fashion detrimental to their manifest interests, and sees equally important matters practically ignored because they have not sufficient political influence to compel the attention of our Parliamentary authorities. The question of immigration, for example, is notoriously a pressing one, the industrial •development of the country beingretarded in many directions owing to the neglect of the Government to deal energetically with the problem, by not only organising a sufficient influx of properly selected immigrants, but by so arranging an adequate roads policy as to profitably absorb on highly necessary public works all surplus labour during the slack season. This labour problem is serious in many industries, but is particularly so in agriculture. For it is not merely enough that land should be taken up. It must be brought under cultivation, and continuously cultivated, before settlement can be regarded as accomplished, and owing to the great scarcity of agricultural labour this great process is being accomplished but slowly. Agriculture, it may be pointed out, being the great primary industry of the country, is on an absolutely different, footing in relation to production to the great . secondary industries in which what are termed the skilled trades are employed. There cannot be too many farmers; there cannot.be too great agricultural production; and there cannot be any objection whatever to the immigration of agricultural labour as long as it can be employed. Our farmers are in no sense whatever competing against one another, however much they may be competing against the farmers of the Argentine and of Siberia. The faster they can clear their land and the more scientifically they can cultivate it, the better not only for the community at large but for themselves as a great body. A completely settled district, in which every desirable acre is in use, is the best district to farm in and to work in, for it necessarily has better communications and better conveniences, and employs more labour than one less advanced. Moreover, from capable, industrious,

and thrifty farm labour all new countries draw many of their best and most successful settlers, whenever conditions are such, as they should be in New Zealand, that thrifty and industrious workers have fair opportunity to become independent farmers upon farms of their own. From the public as well as from the agricultural point of view the promotion of the immigration cf farm labourers from the United Kingdom, as urged by several of the farmers' conferences, is most desirable.

In discussing the problem of agricultural labour, there is a peculiar . tendency to overlook the possibility of the Maori, although this cannot be charged against the organisers of the exotic Mormon Church. We are always theorising on the desirability of establishing the Maori upon the land which he owns in such large areas and upon the necessity for breaking up the communal system; but we have no practical method of bringing this about. Those who are regarded as the leaders of the Maori appear to be more concerned that he should live by drawing perpetual rent from Pakeha tenant farmers, and that the "landless" Maori should be given land, than that the Maori should learn to farm in the same practical school as the Pakeha. Yet there can be no work more suited to a people like the Maori than that of agriculture. Owing to their limited number and to the exceptional character of, the relationship between the two races there is not and cannot be any antagonism on the part of British Labour to Maori Labour. It is preposterous to assume that what is good enough for an Englishman is not good enough for a Maori, or i that any men of the native race would not be better employed at farm work for the excellent wages ruling than in idling about the kaingas. In many cases, we would point out, the Maori has sought agricultural employment and- has proved himself a capable and patient worker; ftor can there be any doubt that from such experiences the true Maori settler must come if he is coming at all. To segregate the Maori among his unversed and inexperienced compatriots, to encourage his isolation, and to foster the idea that in every way he must be dealt with differently from the Pakeha is bad for the country and bad for the Maori. By encouraging him to take up that farm work which would keep him under healthy conditions and protect him from the debilitating influences of the towns, while training him and hardening him for an independent life on a farm of his own, the Maori problem may be solved as in no other way. At the present time there is a remarkably good opportunity for this. Agricultural labour is so scarce that there would be no difficulty whatever in procuring employment for Maoris at encouraging wages, where they would have every opportunity to learn how to farm. This would train them to manage subsequently farms of their own, while assisting in an entirely unexceptional manner in meeting the present great dearth of agricultural labour.