FARM LABOUR SHORTAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23340, 4 November 1937, Page 10

FARM LABOUR SHORTAGE

The existence of a shortage of farm labour is admitted by the Government. It is contended by it, however, that this is a normal condition of affairs, and that it could be overcome at the present time if the farmers would employ inexperienced hands under a plan under which the wages would be subsidised by payments from the Unemployment Fund. The Minister of Labour has many complimentary things to say about the farmers, but he finds them unreasonable in their reluctance to employ any labour other than that which they might expect to be fairly useful. He is the more concerned about this because he claims, rather curiously, that the present Government has done more than any previous Government to help the farmer 'to obtain labour. The way in which this help has been afforded is not very clear. Probably it is through the service which is provided in the establishment of a placement department. There are, Mr Armstrong declares, more men on the books of this department waiting for farm jobs than there are' farm jobs to be filled. The position on many farms is so desperate that it is impossible to believe that these men would not be snapped up if they were worth employing. But the average farmer has a strong objection to being expected at a busy period of the year to put up with a succession of misfits. And he cannot help feeling somewhat resentful of the fact that the Government which professes so much solicitude for him has enticed men away from farm work by offering attractive conditions of employment on public works. He recalls further that the Minister of Public Works asserted, in his downright style, that no farm labourer would be permitted to leave a farm in order to secure work under his department. The comment which Mr Semple's colleague, Mr Armstrong, makes upon this assertion is, of course, unanswerable. It would be tyrannical to deny to any farm labourer the right to improve his position by seeking employment under the Public Works Department. Therein lies the crux of the whole

I position. Employment under the Public Works Department has been made more attractive than employment on a farm. Not only is the rate of pay better, but the hours of work are shorter, and amenities are provided in the Public Works camps that cannot be provided by any farmer for his employees. In the face of this it is simply idle for the Minister of Labour to make loud claims on behalf of the Government about the assistance which the farmer is receiving from it in his effort to secure labour.