LABOUR ON FARMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23084, 9 January 1937, Page 16

LABOUR ON FARMS

POSITION IN TOE WAIKATO EXPERIENCED MEN SCARCE NO SHORTAGE OF CASUALS (Per United Press Association) HAMILTON, Jan. 8. The committee set up by the Waikato Sub-provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union to investigate the farm labour question and to suggest means of meeting the position tabled the following report at a meeting to-day:— (1) “There is no shortage of casual workers for harvesting or development works. (2) “ That where an organisation exists, as in the Te Awamutu and Ohaupo areas, under the relieving farm manager scheme, there is no shortage of reliable, experienced men to take charge or assist on farms where the farmer wishes to take a holiday. (3) “ There is a definite shortage, however, of experienced farm labourers, and a pronounced shortage of youths. In many cases the inability to obtain labour, coupled with a decided reluctance on the part of men to undertake this class of work, has caused considerable hardship to farmers, and, in many cases, has caused dairymen to reduce the size of their herds. The difficult labour problem, together with the recent rise in wool values, has brought about a strong tendency on farms where it is possible to do so to reduce the herds further and to replace them with sheep.” There was a lengthy discussion on the report. Mr C. J. Pierce (Ohaupo) said, “ Our own people are not sending their children on the land. They are going in for the professions and industrial trades. I would like to know how many of our people are. sending their children to positions in the towns. They are expecting labour in place of their own children, and the people who are making the most noise are those who are offering the worst conditions.” It was stated, by several speakers that the higher rates of pay for musicians playing at dances, as laid down by the Arbitration Court, had so interfered with the social life of the more remote country districts that in some halls no functions had been held for six months, and that in many cases the halls were becoming liabilities. The cost of hiring musicians had become practically prohibitive where country halls were concerned. “ POLITICAL PROPAGANDA” MR SEMPLE'S OPINION (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 8. • “ Our experience convinces us that there is a good deal of political propaganda about this talk v of a shortage of labour for farm work,” said the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple) to-day. The Minister said that in the Public Works Department everything. possible had been done to encourage men to go from Public Works jobs and help the farmers during the busy period, and he was satisfied that, if the full facts were known, there would be very little to complain of. “I am satisfied that farmers anywhere in the vicinity of Public Works construction camps who wanted labour would have no difficulty in securing it, as there are plenty of men willing to accept such work,” the Minister said. “A farmer told me the other day in the North Island that I should take no notice of the talk about difficulty in securing farm labour. He said it was nothing more or less than political propaganda, and that the Farmers’ Union was just giving the new Leader of the Opposition (Mr Adam Hamilton) something to talk about.”