SCARCITY OF FARM LABOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22172, 27 July 1935, Page 17

SCARCITY OF FARM LABOUR

Sir,—After reading Mr. V. H. Potter's letter. I feel that it calls for a reply. Firstly, I would like to ask Mr. Potter if he has ever been employed on a dairy or sheep farm and thus gain experience to place his charge. I have been engaged in farm work for eight years now and I have never yet been asked to work under the conditions that he names. Only at one position have I been asked to rise at four o'clock and fory that I was well paid. I would suggest that the conditions mentioned by Mr. Potter's letter are the exception rather than the rule. As for sleeping quarters, I have never yet heard of a case of a youth having to sleep in a woolshod. Surely Mr. Potter is conversant with the Waikato dairy farms and other dairying districts to know that at the present dnv very few dairy farms are only productive on 75 per cent. Is he not once again stating the exception rather than the rule. Every farm labotirer is * entitled to Saturday or at least one afternoon off and this is generally recognised by the employers. May t ask what wage Mr. Potter expects the farmers to nay their help? F.W.S. Te Awamutu.

Sir, —When a person of Mr. Vivian H. Potter's calibre maligns the farming community vide his letter in your issue of July 23, we really must sit up and take a little notice. It is certainly true that many of us are saddled with too much land (and that problem is slowly being solved), but his statement that farm labourers work " from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days a week and a few hours less on Sunday " is quite wrong. In Rodney County hours generally are from 5 a.m. in the summer to 6.30 p.m.. with two hours off for the three or four meals. Also. 95 per cent of farm labourers can get off for all the sport they want on Saturdays, either the half-day or the full-day, according to the nature of the sport, and all day Sunday between milkings. As to the living conditions mentioned by Mr. Potter —that also is quite wrong. The " outhouse or woolshed '' is ridiculous. Tn most instances the farm labourer is treated as one of the family. Finally, the lot of the young farm labourer is altogether a splendid one. If he is worth his salt he is learning the very intricate business of farming, he can save some money each year and eventually can acquire some of that 75 per cent of the farm that Mr. Potter writes about. Kaipara.Flats. Roy F. Ellis.