SCARCITY OF LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 34

SCARCITY OF LABOUR.

(Fbosi otrß own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 29.

After an extended tour through the country districts, I may safely say that I have not for many years found so much work offering and men so hard to get -(flays a writer of Labour Notee in the Herald). All through the East Coast, which is the richest and most neglected district in the province, tradesmen of all kinds are in demand. Farm hands, station hands, and! navvies are all sought for, and are apparently unobtainable. Wages are good, and the conditions of employment are greatly improved on what th,ey used to be a few years back. Around Gisboino tho grass seed! threshing is now in full swing, and manyi of the mills find it difficult to work fullhanded. Eleven shillings for 10 hours, and no lost time during the shifts, being on, offer. Prosperity seems written all over the face of the district, and, with improved! means of communication, the wealth of tho district will show an enormous increase. Tho want of railway communication ie a) great drawback. In the Motu district, Iving between Gisborne and Opotiki, and on. the route of the proposed railway between, Auckland and Gisborne, there has been;/ enough valuable milling timber destroyed in( recent years as to pay for the railway, besides supplying a long felt want to tfid district in the shape of first-clase timber aM a reasonable cost. There still remains al large quantity of this valuable and unrenewable asset in the district, and it is to bet , hoped that the visit ot tho Hon. R. M'NaDi will result in its being converted into al source of potential wealth and saved from destruction by fire.