FARM LABOUR PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24431, 17 October 1940, Page 6

FARM LABOUR PROBLEMS

The need for ensuring that farmers shall have an adequate supply of suitable labour during the press of important seasonal operations has been engaging the attention of farmers’ organisations throughout the country. It is gratifying to be informed that the labour problem is probably less serious in Otago than anywhere else in the Dominion, a statement to that effect having been made by the Placement Officer (Mr T. A. White) at Tuesday’s meeting of the Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union. Nevertheless, the fact of a shortage in this district as elsewhere has to be Reckoned with, particularly, according to Mr White, in respect of men required for seasonal activities such as shearing and turnip-thinning. For the latter work it is hoped to make use of the services of secondary schoolboys during the long vacation, but for work calling for expert application it is obvious that other arrangements will have to be made. Enlistment in the military forces has undoubtedly aggravated the farm labour shortage, regardless of the provision made for exempting men in reserved occupations, and territorial training may add to existing difficulties if a close watch is not kept on the situation by farmers themselves as well as by the special Manpower Committees that have beep-appointed to consider appeals against such service. One danger that has been foreseen is that much of the labour likely to be dffering in the coming months may be so unsuitable as to encourage farmers to struggle along as best they can rather than be burdened With the liability of paying for the services of, and maintaining men who would simply be a drag on their activities. Farmers can, it is to be assumed, best guard against such a difficulty by seeking to make farm conditions more attractive, in terms of accommodation for both married and single workers. It is discouraging to learn that in both Otago and Southland there has, up to the present, been little disposition on the part of farmers to take advantage of the rural housing scheme lately propounded by the Government. Under that scheme cottages of good construction and reasonably Well appointed are to be made available to farmers on a modest rental basis, and- it is not too much to suppose that the difficulty of inducing good, men to offer themselves for engagement would be considerably lessened if farmers appreciated the necessity for providing acceptable living conditions for their employees. Something tangible in this direction may be achieved now that the district farmer's’ organisations are undertaking to make the Government’s housing offer as widely known as possible.