HOURS ON THE DAIRY FARM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18689, 21 April 1924, Page 5

HOURS ON THE DAIRY FARM.

Sir,— view of the ever-increasing demands being made by all sections of organised workers, including civil servants, it would be interesting if figures could be obtained as to the actual wag*s of the overage dairy farm worker. I make the following rough calculations re dairy workers to compare with, say, the recent request of the Post and Telegraph staff for a minimum <4 £260 per year, for a 44 hour week with holidays, and annual leave to be deducted from the alleged 44 hours worked. We can take it that our dairy production— consumption and exports, plus pigs, etc.—would total £22,000,000. There were 56,000 suppliers to dairy factories as revealed by the recent referendum of dairy farmers -held by the Government. Assuming each supplier to represent two workers, there would be 102,000 workers. We thus find the average' production per worker totals about £200 per year. From this must again be ' deducted quite £10,000,000 per year for interest, expenses, etc., leaving a balance, 'per year of possibly £100 for wages, salary add emoluments for our dairy worker, and this for a week of seven days, and often of quite 84 hours. I make no : comparisons between the privilege of ' drudging after everlasting cows and the privilege of drudging for our easygoing taxpayers, but I think one could fairly mention that all wages have to be paid for by services rendered, otherwise they are falsely obtained. The producer gets . only the value of his production (often a lot less), and, seeing our railways have;-; been maintained at the public expense th* ; last few years, surely the v should be put. , .- : s on a self-supporting basis as; soon as risible Personally I would like to see Livil . servants, and other organised workers, generally, obtain a minimum of £5 a van:. Perhaps if dairy farming conditions and hours worked applied they all could - to, morrow* , .- ■»> < Vj *