AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL WORKERS' COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2683, 16 August 1905, Page 23

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL WORKERS' COLUMN.

NOTES AND GENERAL INFORMATION.

Bt Steve Bobeham.

During my travels last «eason in quest of wool-failing several farmers with small lots of sheep complained that they could not get competent rnon to do the work. In some cases fanners coxild not get shearers of any description ; consequently they had •to tackle the -work themselves, with disastrous consequences to the sheep and a de'preciatkm of not less than {d per 1b in the price of the wool. The small wool grower ha,s no one but himself to blame for thi3 state of affairs. Especially was this the case last season, for two reasons, both of which could be avoided were the farmers to start shearing a few weeks •earlier and pay a little more to have .their sheep shorn than the price paid by large station holders Last year farmers were under the impression that they would be committing a breach of the Arbitration Court award were .they to pay more per 100 for shearing than the minimum price fixed by the court— viz., 15s per 100. This is nGt the case. Farmers must understand that the court only fixes a mininram. wage, and in no case states whait the maximum wage shall be; therefor© employers would be w ; .thin their rights were they to increase the wage laid down as the minimum to any amount they might think suitable to themselves and fair to the shearer. Speaking for myself, I would suggest that small farmers, seeing they have not so far to cart their wool to a market, that it costs them practically nothing for rouseabou-ts, and that the sheep room is, generally speaking, nil, should p-ay at least not less than 3s per 100 more than the price paid on. the large stations. Were the fanners tc do this and! start their shearing .two or three weeks earlier, I do not think they •would have any reason to j complain that they could nob get shearers. Be-sides. wore an earlier start made, shearers would be able to get away to fill their engagements on the large sheen runs. Small sheep owners must learn .that shearers desire to shear as many sheep as possible during the season, and therefore will not mess, about for a few cookies' sheep at a time when they might be comfortably settled down in a shed with four or five weeksshearing in front of them. It is somewhat surprising .to us, now that the farmers have a union and the squatters are organised, that the two bodies do not make some systematic arrangement as to the dato of starting to shear, so that the interests of the one will not clash with those of the other. I can assure sheep owners that men are not so prone in these days to run after shearing- as they were a few years back ; nor are so many young men desirous of learning ,the game. Tbo same remarks apply to the Commonwealth States. As a matte- of fact, a number of early sheds out back in N«w South Wales have started 1 this year short-handed — a thing the writer never heard of during his 25 years' experience. Taking this fact as aai augury of the number of shearers we day expect from the other side this season, we njtay safely assume that very few will cross the Tasman Sea when they can get shearing up to the end of January at their own doors. Taking this with the fact .that a great many New Zealanders have gone over for the shearing during the last month, and that a champion shearing competition is to take place during November, squatters will be- wise to prepare for a scarcity o£ men in .this country diuring the forthcoming season. The writer learns on reliable authority that 'the winter in North Otago has been a splendid one for sheep, and tha± the, elipwill be a good one. That is, my authority goes on .to say, "if the shearers will onlytake a little more off." Well, If all the squatters see that it is- taken off as close as my friend! gets it off his flock we have nothing to fear in this direction, and therefore may rest assured ,tha* the clip this season will be all that is lesired from «.

squatter's point of view; and, with a rise of 2d or 3d per Ib, Dick Seddon's next surplus will not surprise the writer if it reaches a million sterling. Some years ajjo the writer took an activo part in .the unemployed j-gitation — that i°s to say, agitatnio- for work for tho-e out of employment. With the introduction of the Government Labour Burcaas it was supposed that men desiring work would be distributed .throughout tho colcr.y to where work was to be had, and forwarded on to employers who required labourez's. So far the bureau* have not done what was expected of them, nor anything like what the Minister of Labour pronvscd us we wore to expect. So far as my experience leads me to believe, I am satisfied they exi-.fc only for one purposs — that is, to provide n.on to carry on the construction of public works under the so-called co-ooerativo system. Now, I submit that the bureaus, were they properly managed, would be a boon to the employer as well as the employee ; but as carried otn at present neither the employer nor the worker cares to have anything 1 mj do with them. As a matter of fact, private employers will not engage men through the Government bureau — for what reason I am not prepared to say. However, if this braneih of the Department of Labour is to be continued, it is evident to me that some alteration will have to be made in the management in order to induce employe is to get their men through the bureau. That Ihis is practicab'e we have ample proof, as the result of the operations of £be Timaru bureau iinder the control o£ Mounted' Constable Crawford demonstrated. At a time when every town in the colony had it«j batch of unemployed, and the voice of th© unemployed agitator could be heard from every street corner, Timaru was jogging along perfectly satisfied with the work Mr Crawford was able to secure from private employers. Strange, but nevertheless true: At a time when the writer thought every man in T.he colony was on the unemployed list, Mr Crawford called en him when passing thrmgh Timaru and asked! if he could recommend one or two good men for Mr Elank — a long job. This was surprising, considering .the sia. + c of the labour market at the time. In tho face of this I do not hesitate to say that the officers in chaiji-j of the bureaus at present have no idea of what should, and would, be the functions of .these places were they worked on the same lines as Mounted Constable Crawford vorked his office in Tirnaiu. I therefore urge that in order to make the Government labour bureaus worthy of a place amongst our Government institutions Constable Crawford be placed in charge of the bureaus throughout .the colony, with instructions to organise them on the same lines and make them as useful and populaa* as the Timaru office under his management. Either this or wipe them out of existence altogether.