LABOUR FOR FARMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22911, 19 June 1936, Page 12

LABOUR FOR FARMS

Farmers ami unemployed alike have reason to be interested in a statement that was made by the Minister of Finance, who is also Minister of Marketing, in reply to a question at the meeting of the National Dairy Association on Wednesday. Partners have, as a class, been greatly exercised about the difficulties they have experienced in securing labour of a satisfactory kind. They are reasonably apprehensive that their difficulties may be increased in consequence of the industrial policy of the Government. Farm labour at the present time is not readily procurable. The wages that are paid and the accommodation that is provided—the latter in far too many cases, it is to be feared, being distinctly less than satisfactory—have, when compared with the conditions of employment in other industries, combined to make the rural industry unattractive to labour. The rates of sustenance payment themselves tend to discourage men from seeking work in the country. They even lettd men to decline casual work in town at the standard wage which the Government proposes to pay on public works. And when an extensive and economically

unsound scheme of public works has been inaugurated, which will absorb, according to Ministerial estimates, 26,000 men at a minimum wage of 16s per day, rural employment will become even less attractive than it is now. There is every reason, therefore, why farmers, who cannot afford to pay wages at a rate equivalent to 16s per day, should feel some anxiety, concerning their ability to secure paid help on terms that will enable them to conduct their industry profitably. Mr Nash has offered them some measure of reassurance. He has told them that farm labour will be available and that the rates of pay have already been determined. If they may express surprise at rates of pay having been already determined without their having any knowledge of what these rates are, they may derive consolation from Mr Nash’s own interpretation of his statement. This is that if work is not available under the Public Works Department and farm labour is available, men who refuse to accept farm work will not be paid sustenance. That is a reasonable attitude for the Government to adopt in so far as it relates to men in receipt of sustenance who are physically capable of performing rural work. But it seems doubtful whether it will ensure that labour will actually be available for work on the farms.