LABOUR FOR FARMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23703, 10 January 1939, Page 8

LABOUR FOR FARMS

The general secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, Mr A. Cook, is at least on sound ground when he emphasises the need for a “ full and frank discussion ” of all the factors contributing to the present shortage of farm labour. Such discussion would presumably be between members of farmers’ organisations and representatives of Mr Cook’s union and the Government, and it is probable that if all points of view were heard at a common conference table the prospects of arriving at a practical solution would be considerably assisted. Mr Cook is inclined to make light of farmers’ difficulties. Indeed, he seems to doubt that there is any shortage of casual labour for farms, and he dismisses as absurd the suggestion that, if there is a shortage, it is due, either wholly or in part, to the greater attractions of employment on public works schemes. Mr Cook, it would seem, is at variance with both the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Public Works on that point, for it has been freely recognised in those departmental quarters that farmers’ problems have been intensified by the absorption of casual labour into State works. Indeed, the Minister of Public Works has himself given valuable assistance to rural industry by drafting men from public works to such seasonal activities as harvesting, and by insisting that expert farm workers who refuse to make that move, under promise that public works employment will be available to them at the end of their farm engagements, will be sum-

marily written off the State’s payroll. Mr Cook’s proposals for overcoming farmers’ embarrassments, mainly by the organisation of group or district labour schemes, will require to be closely examined by the farmers themselves. They recognise, among other difficulties, the familiar one of the shortage of suitable accommodation for farm labourers and their families, which is an aspect of the general problem in which the Government particularly would have to interest itself. But, because of doubts as to their practicability, they should not be summarily rejected or dismissed as a serviceable basis for discussion. While the most pressing need of the times is for smooth working in all branches of industry no plan which promises even a modicum of progress in that direction can be ignored.