FARM LABOUR PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15233, 21 February 1913, Page 6

FARM LABOUR PROBLEM.

The conference held a yesterday in Auckland between the executive of the Auckland Farmers* Union, the secretary of the Labour Department and the Land Purchase Commissioner dealt very - satisfactorily with a scheme which may inaugurate : a new j : era in the agricultural - industry. ; As j everybody knows, farming is greatly j handicapped and the operations of farmers greatly restricted by the 1 general impossibility of obtaining a. reliable supply of labour for harvesting and other emergencies. The j Farmers' Union has carefully con- \ sidered this supremely important j question and has developed the! scheme discussed at the conference. The scheme is, briefly, that "work- ] ers' small holdings " of from five to thirty acres, with small' cottages, j should be provided by the Govern- j ment throughout the districts requiring labour, upon optional right of ! purchase, to practical men. These j men by industry would become freeholders arid would be able to earn the high wages offered for casual f country labour while employing themselves ordinarily on their own land. To enable this principle to be carried out it is provided in ; the scheme that the number of sections offered shall in no case exceed the requirements o£ the districts, and it is suggested by the Farmers' Union that setters who would benefit by the extra labour ■■:. thus introduced ■ would recoup, the Government, for any loss of interest on! money expended for land. The scheme met ; with unanimous approval, and if cari ried into effect by the Government I should assist: powerfully in drawing | the'very best workers into the coun- [ try and should thus provide an effec- ! tive solution of the .< agricultural labour problem. It is ; not by ;? men who propose remaining labourers all their lives that this difficulty; is to be surmounted, but by men who, by industry; are assured >y of ;becoming small land holders and ; who may easily make this the stepping-stone to more extensive fanri-W enterprises. . . ' -_"-\ . ,