THE RURAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23883, 10 August 1939, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD

FARM AND STATION NEWS

By RUSTICUS.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

OFFICIAL NOTES

"Say," said the woman customer over the telephone, "the next time.l order chicken, don't send me any more aeroplane fowls." "What do you mean—aeroplane fowls?" asked the butcher. "You know what I mean—all wings and machinery and no,body." '

The Otago Provincial Council, New Zealand Farmers' Union, is holding a meeting to-day, and, the-subjects on the Agenda PapeK make it, one of the most important meetings of recent years. Matters in connection with the Sheepfarming Industry Commission and the recent increase in taxation with its repercussions on the fanner will be discussed, along? with other items which are of almost equal importance.

The Dominion secretary (Mr A. P. O'Shea) is making a tour of New .Zealand in connection witnSthe Sheepfarming Industry Commission .with a view to haying the evidence fr6mv,the variousi districts put forward in as an affective and- concise form as possible He will be, in Dunedin on August 22 and 23, when it is hoped that a good deal of the evidence will be available

litem* of Interest to those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, *rita • view to their publication in these columns, will'be welcomed. They should be addressed to Ruaticus, Otago Daily Times, Dunedln.

for his inspection. Two members of the expert secretariat attached to the commission will also be in Dunedin about the same time for the purpose of arranging for the examination of witnesses and for giving any information that may be required.

The Country Girls' Educational Week is in progress, and a party of nearly 60 fully representative of the Otago province are thoroughly enjoying the well-balanced programme which is being carried out. After a talk on "Gardening" by Mr D. Tannock. A.H.R.H.S., to-morrow morning, the party will attend the community sing at 12.30 p.m., and the programme will be concluded with a dance to be held on , the same evening in the R.S.A. rooms, Moray place.

The presentation of cups and certificates for the past season's farm competitions took place at Balclutha last week, when there was a very good attendance.

The highlight of the function was an address by Mr E. Bruce Levy, grassland division, Plant Research Bureau, Palmerston North, and the talk was illustrated by a,, wonderful collection of slides taken 'by Mr Levy on his tour abroad when he attended the ■World Grassland Conference. After a thorough examination of the pastures abroad, Mr Levy was convinced that the ryegrass-white clover predominant pasture was the most effective, and this could only be obtained by the judicious use of lime and fertilisers. •

Mr "William Sutherland (Waiwera) moved a very hearty vote of thanks to the speaker, and this was enthusiastically carried. Mr A. C. Leary, chairman of directors of the South Otago Freezing Company and of the Otago Farmers Union "Mutual Fire Insurance -Association, presented the cups won in the pasture and other competitions. Mr J. A. Anderson received the South Otago Freezing Company's cup for the best-pasture in South Otago, and also the insurance Cup for the champion pasture of Otago. Hearty! congratulEitions were extended to, Mj Anderson for such a fine performance in winning against the irrigated pastures of Central; ' .< Mr S. P. Cameron-later presented the certificates awarded to the 'successful eompetititdrs in the district competitions for root crops, pasture, and ewe hoggets by the Otago Farm Comr petitions Committee. Supper was kindly provided by the Clutha branch of the. New Zealand Farmers' Union, and a social hour was spent at the conclusion of the more, formal proceedings. ■'■ ■ ■<

The British Minister of Agriculture announced in the House of Commons recently that it was proposed to provide training facilities in peace time for women enrolled in a land army-in order to ensure that farmers had an unmediate< supply; %'. of partially trained'labour in the event of war. The Ministry are to give a short training cijuraeyih tractor driving kl and other cWW&t -classes of ■"ifcitrttctiori Williil is; hoped, be arranged by local edu~ ditionr authoiritiea -3ut if - any large number 'of volunteers Tare ' tov b# trained-'the co-operation of individual farmers is vital. . ~'! > v Farmers are soon to be'canvassed with a view to their agreeing to take one or more volunteers on their farms for, say, a fortnight, and-to give them a. general introduction to-farm work, volunteers will be asked to give up their, summer, holiday to take.. this training and where.the farmer is willing to give board and lodging to' one or more trainees as well as to'give free training, 6uch an offer will be gratefully accepted. It -is expected, owever, that most of the volunteers will be able to make a small weekly payment for. board and lodging. It might seem that this idea will not do very much towards providing farm workers in war time. Certainly a girl who has spent a fortnight on a farm is in ho sense a farm worker. All the same, in the event of war she would be of more practical assistance on the land than a volunteer who had had no farm experience at all. Also the introduction of the proposed system of short course holiday training will.: give the Ministry an opportunity to judge the suitability of the volunteers for different types of land work. It is hoped that farmers will be prepared to co-operate in the. Minister's effort to ensure an addition to the agricultural labour supply in time of war, and will regard this provision of holiday training for land army, volunteers as a practical form of national service. ....■' ' . . *'.,, PEDIGREE SOUTHDOWN RAM < Our London correspondent,' writing on July 13, says that a pedigree Southdown ram, bred-by Mr John'Langmead, of Arundel, Sussex, has .been bought by Mr Walter Booth (Feilding). It will be shipped' by Messrs .Dalgety and Co., via Australia, and Will probably leave England towards the end of September, It is expected to reach New Zealand about the end of January 1940. The ram recently took' third prize in its class at the Royal Show 'at Windsor.

FARM LABOUR CRISIS IN GREAT BRITAIN COPING WITH THE SITUATION The crisis caused by the shortage of farm labour, which daily becomes more acute, may prove to be the testingblock for the Government's new policy for agriculture. For without an adequate labour supply and a contented rural population, price-insurance plans and schemes to maintain soil fertility must be severely limited in their value to the industry. In some areas men are leaving the farms so fast—many of them to get work on Government schemes at £3 and £4 a week—that whole groups of farms may soon be without any paid labour at all. „ , While the immediate difficulties of farmers are serious enough, it is known that the Government views the situation with great anxiety from the standpoint of national defence. The indus/ trial' boom and the big Government building schemes are taking away the skilled men who would be most badly needed in an emergency,Speaking at the meeting of the Council of Agriculture, in London, Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, Minister of Agriculture, said he was "very concerned" about the question of farm They must work as hard as they could, he said, to see that the agricultural industry was put in a position to pay its workers the higher wages they wanted to pay them. They also wanted to improve the conditions of rural Me. The question was not just, one ot economics. It was a question rather of how to find the right relation between the townsman and the countryman, and that proper relation must be found. What Can be Done Both the Ministries of Agriculture and Labour are now considering what steps may be taken to dealwith the problem, but it is doubtful whether the Government will be able to take any immediate action to ensure to all farmers an adequate supply of labour The Government cannot, in peace time, guarantee to find Workers for individual employers in any industry. At present it can only help to fill In the eaps through the -machinery of labour f*xch.3n£os. The Ministry of Labour is offering its services to farmers in rinding labour for the harvest, but in some areas even the Ministry finds it difficult tp get men. And when the men are found they are not always prepared to work on the farm. Fanners' Union Move

Captain G. Deakin. chairman of the Labour Committee of the National Farmers' Union, has been to the Ministry several times lately, to seek help for members whose staffs have been seriously depleted. Caotain Deakin said that in a num-. ber of these cases the men who had been sent to the farms by the labour exchanges" had declared that they would sooner remain on the dole than work for farm wages. Many had flatly refused to work. He had been assured that wherever possible an effort would be made to meet the shortage in particular; districts by drafting in men from other areas. ';./■'. 1

Expressing his personal views. Captain Deakin said: "There is no doubt that the root of the trouble is in the fact that a. policy of cheap food has been followed at the expense of food producers and their men. "In Britain we have maintained a low cost of living by absorbing the •surplus farm produce of countries overseas. Much of this food is produced by peasant farmers who employ no labour and whose standards of Jiving are often miserable. "The result is that our farm wages and conditions have been forced right out of line with those of industry. Npw we are seeing the result in a shortage of skilled of course, it is being aggravated by the rearmament-programme and'the boom ;ih industry.'^ v ...-v.. **■••'; -'■'"- • !; ;' e . ,«.; :'iThie^W6r'kers' v ;Say ,•

.The farm;. workers' leaders are iust -as ■ concerned as the farmers at the flight of men from the soiL An official of the National Union of Agricultural Workers said: /, "One of the most disturbing features of the situation is that many of the men who are now, leaving the farms.for better-paid iobs in towns or on the aerodromes may never return to the farms. Men who can;get something like £3 a week.: with a short "working day. are notiikelv to look for farm work again, unless tjiere is a improvement in rural conditions. Our view is that the Government's new schemes will do nothing to stop the drift from the land." At the Ministry of Labour reasons Were given why schemes put up by farmers and others to deal with the problem had been turned-down. One of the most recent schemes to be reiected was that out forward by Mr W. T. Price. Wiltshire agricultural organiser, for the training of lads from the towns. Scholarships on Farms Mr Price suggested that scholarships or apprenticeships should be awarded for training on approved farms and that grants might be offered to farmers to meet the difference between the standard wages and the cost of board and lodging and other expenses. A number of experimental training schemes on similar lines however, have been launched only to be abandoned through lack of suitable recruits. Many of the lads, after training confessed that thev were no longer keen on farm life. Training schemes for adults had been eauallv disappointing a Ministry official said. Unemployed men in the special areas were reluctant to leave their homes to take ur farm work, especially where there was some hope of their getting a iob in industry. Some said they were "better off" on the dole. Some time ago an experimental training scheme was started in a " distressed " area in the North of England where a large Droportion of the unemployed lived in the villages. It was thought that there would be no difficulty in recruiting men. but there were so few trainees forthcoming that the scheme had to be closed down. Unemployed Sav ' No"

A typical answer of an unemployed man here was: "If I stav at home I shall get so much a week in benefit for myself so much for the wife, and so much for the kids. If you send me down to Dorset or Cornwall to work oh a farm I shall be lucky if I get over thirty bob. Thanks but I'm not moving."

The only training schemes which have met with success are those for iuveniles. One such scheme is that operated by the Y.M.C.A. in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour. In the last six years about 1500 boys have been trained under this scheme and placed on the land. But these schemes, successful as thev are. do little to solve the problem In the last 10 years no fewer than 180.000 regular workers have left the farms. FARMERS' FINANCE AN APPRECIATION A North Otago correspondent writes: —"I have read with great interest the contributed article on 'Farmers' Finance,' appearing in your columns on August 5. The constructive suggestions made are very attractive, and undoubtedly warrant very close study and investigation. " I heartily agree that the larming industry is at present in definitely serious financial difficulties, and that reconstruction on a permanent basis is much more likely to be achieved from within the industry itself than from without. The future of land settlement on a sound basis is also largely dependent on the solving of the present financial difficulties. "For the information of youi contributor, I would state that 1 am a member of a local 'Study Group' which is discussing various national problems, the farming industry being one of the most important. Your cortributor's article deserves the widest nublicity, and I would suggest that the

practical application of the points raised would only be possible by a coordinated widespread public demand intelligently directed and supported by those definitely interested in the farming industry. . , 8 Might I suggest that in my opimor your contributor's concluding paragraph is not quite a happy one Anything in the nature of an implied threat of direct action is to be deprecated, as it might antagonise public opinion. To-day we are suffering too much from sectional antagonisms and, co-operation must be the basis of real progress. "Your contributor's observations ' the effect of the Mortgage Adjustment Commission's work are also deserving of the highest praise." NEW ZEALAND SHEEP PREFERRED BY ARGENTINE "SUPERIOR" TO BRITAIN'S (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, July 13. Representatives of Argentine at the Royal Show stated that they are finding it almost impossible to buy pedigree sheen from Great Britain at present as any that are for sale are required for breding at home. They have, therefore been obliged to buy from New Zealand, where the class of'sheep offered is considered by Argentine experts to be greatly superior to those which might be obtainable from Britain were they available.