FARM LABOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23143, 15 September 1938, Page 10

FARM LABOUR

[PROBLEM IN DAIRYING POSITION REMAINS ACUTE SUBSIDISING THE UNSKILLED JWIVES AND CHILDREN WORK ""Whatever members of the Government say on the subject, the dairy industry, which is expected to earn a large proportion of the national income, continues to suffer through an extreme shortage of experienced labour," said a representative farmer yesterday, when commenting upon a statement by the Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, in Parliament, in which he asserted that there had been little variation in tho farm labour problem over a long period of years.

"It was, 1 know, the dream of one Minister when he received his portfolio that farmers' wives and children would be relieved of duties in tho milking shed," said tho farmer. "But to-day there aro as many wives and children working in tho sheds as ever there .were. . A Constant Procession "Admittedly, the Placement Office has been striving its hardest to find the labour required. We know that some pressure is being applied to divert single men of experience to the farms. Subsidies are being paid to encourage farmers to employ inexperienced men. but that fact is proof that experienced men have found work of another kind. Had experienced farm labour not been attracted to public works and other avenues of employment where wages are higher and hours shorter there would bo no need to give subsidies for the training of tho inexperienced. .Under the present system tho Employment Fund will be used to train a new body of dairy farm labour each year, for each year the bulk of the trainees will vanish to more lucrative occupations- where hours aro shorter." The fact was recalled that when the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Minister-'of Labour, was investigating the shortage of labour for the Waikato hay harvest two seasons ago, ho repeatedly affirmed from the platform that no one could challenge the right of any man to change his work for his own benefit. This clearly implied that there were available more attractive jobs than those of a dairy farm. Since then a wage scale for farm workers has been fixed, but it has not stopped tho drift away from the dairy farms. Less Stability

A point emphasised by a northern farmer is that the ease with which men could secure sustenance had in recent seasons undermined the stability of labour. He cited cases of farmers with large herds having been left without help at the beginning of the Christmas holidays and said that the experience had already brought about changes l in individual farm, policy which had been to the detriment of the dairy industry. "We are hoping," he said, "that official statements indicating that prompt discipline will be applied in such cases will have a wholesome effect, but it is not forgotten that last year' many single men became 'voluntarily unemployed' and lost sustenance be-' cause they rejected farm work." - From a district where dairying is intensively carried on it is reported that this season_ several young men had given up their jobs within a week or. two. "Here," states a correspondent, "the average milking shed hand is not skilled and often is unsuitable in other ways. The farmers, of course, will struggle through, but there will be no less shed work for wives."