LABOUR FOR FARMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22349, 21 February 1936, Page 15

LABOUR FOR FARMS

Sir, —1 was interested in the correspondence signed "Facts." I am a sharemiker's wife, have been milking on various places for this last 20 years, and consider I am in a position to give reliable information re treatment and conditions on dairy farms. Our experience has been that where we found one good employer, we found 10 indifferent ones. We have been employed by farmers who have been most considerate to us in regard to wages and housing accommodation and other allowances. Again our sympathies go out to the men and their families that are experiencing the conditions that we are today. We are milking 100 cows of our own on a 50-50 basis. I am compelled to take my washing for a family of six adults to the cowshed to wash, and boil the clothes in a kerosene tin on the stove. We have no bath, but have to all go to the cowshed to bath. When we asked our boss for' a bath, washhouse and tubs, he politely said perhaps we would like him to buy the soap arid towels. We have no open fireplace to sit around in the cold winter months, but are obliged to sit over the stove, and get warm the best way we can. No sewerage and no drainage of any kind are attached to the house. Some of these conditions are the reason why your columns are filled with advertisements for farm hands. Share-milker's Wife.