LABOUR FOR FARMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23055, 4 December 1936, Page 13

LABOUR FOR FARMS

A NATIONAL OBLIGATION NO QUARTER FOR IMPOSTORS (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 3. " The harvesting of the farmers' crops is a national responsibility, and physically fit men who are qualified to do the work and refuse to accept it when decent wages and conditions are offered are betraying the nation," said the Minister of Public Works (Mr Semple) to-day, referring to the determination of the Government to see that labour was provided for the farms.

Mr Semple said it was not merely a question of helping the farmer, but one of helping the nation, as the crops had to be harvested. In the Waikato the farmers were offering 2s 6d an hour for labour. The Government, he said, had established a camp where the men were provided with food and shelter while waiting engagement on farms. He had heard some talk of this being a slave camp, but he thought there were thousands of men who would be glad to havp a taste of that sort of " slavery." Impostors were going to get no quarter from the Government, Mr Semple said. The men would either have to go to farm work when they were advised to go, or their sustenance allowances would be definitelv cut out. '"We propose to help the willing man," he added, " and not to let the unwilling fellow scrounge on the nation."

Asked regarding the recent dismissal of a number of men from a Public Works job for refusing to join the New Zealand Workers' Union, the Minister said the men concerned had been given ample time in which to join the union. Instead, they ignored the agreement, and had done nothing but abuse the Government and himself in particular. The other men on the job were driven to the point of desperation, and they threatened to go on strike if the men were not dismissed.