WAGES FOR THRESHING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20959, 24 February 1930, Page 12

WAGES FOR THRESHING.

TO THE EDITOR. J n yom- issuo of the 12th instant H. W. seems very sore as to the wages for threshing hands. I fail to sec where there was anything sarcastic about my letter, for it contained nothing but facte. H. W.” heed not trouble about mo losing any sleep over him, as 1 am quite aware of the value he gives for his hour e work. He states that the work he does on a mill requires a certain amount of skill and judgment, and he trusts it will not bo too great a shock to me when he insists that he can give value in work on a miH for 2s per hour. Who does i± W. think should be the best judge of the value he gives for his hour's work at Is 10d or 2s per hour—the man that pays or H. W/' himself I think the nian that pays should know best when he 'has to put about four or five men on a straw stack to build it with “ H. W.” to supervise as a skilled man. If “H. W.” thinks that requires skill and judgment I dp not, X am very, mash Barprißeg that

U. W.,” being such a skilled labourer,and preaching .what the. small farmer should do, is lacking funds sufficient to stock his oO acres of bush land which have lain idle for some years for want of money. He. alleges, again, that mill hands have been obliged to sleep in filthy barns, but I repeat that no farmer ever asked him to sleep in such places. He says his last year’s cheque was only a paltry £2O. He forgets that he has had for some years to work on second-class mills in short seasons, with broken time. Nor must he forget that the mill on the Taieri Plain threshes only by the hour, and where it runs at 20 hags to the hour, the farmer cannot help himself, but must give general wages to boys and old men.—l am, etc., _ , _ , Fairplat. Henley, February 19. [A good deal of irrelevant matter has been excised from this letter.— Ed. O.D.T.]