SHEARERS' ACCOMMODATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 6

SHEARERS' ACCOMMODATION.

It is no travesty of the provisions of the Shearers' Accommodation Bill, which the Minister of Labour has introduced in the House of Representatives, to say, as was said by" "a speaker at a meeting of the Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association, that if it is passed in its present form every sheepfarmer will be required to provide a five-roomed house for the occtipation of his shearers during the limited period of their employment in each year. The measure provides that accommodation at a shearing-shed shall not be deemed to be proper and sufficient unless in every case certain specified requirements are complied, with to the satisfaction of an inspector. Of these requirements, which are fifteen in number, the most important are that a sleeping room with a wooden floor and a fireplace and proffer chimney shall be provided, of which the h^ighf shall be not less than 9ift and in which not more than two tiers of bunks shall be allowed, each bunk or bed being furnished by the employer with chaff or.straw, in default of spring mattresses, for each shearer; that a separate sleeping room shall, subject to the same, conditions as apply to the shearers' sleeping room; be provided for the cook and assistant (if any) ; that a dining room, with a wooden floor, and a cooking room, which rooms -shall contain proper and sufficient cooking utensils and table accommodation, shall be provided; that a room with a boiler and a bath, together with the necessary utensils for washing and for washing clothes, v shall •be provided ; and that sufficient sanitary accommodation shall be provided at not less than specified minimum distances from the sleeping accommodation and from the water supply. There are certain reasonable ' and necessary requirements ■wliieii must, in the interests of sanitation, of public health, and of decency, be complied with, but the proposals of the Bill certainly seem to be exposed to the objection that their enactment would necessitate an expenditure by sheep-farmers -for which there is no real demand. And where the Bill is calculated to cause a direct and grievous hardship is that it provides for the repeal of the exemption j clause in the Act of 1898. Under this ' clause the provisions of that Act are 1 not applicable to shearing-sheds in which the total number of shearers employed is less than six nor to shearers whose ordinary residences are in _ the immediate neighbourhood of the shear-ing-shed in which they are employed and who sleep at their own homes, 'ihe Bill of this year contemplates that there shall be no exemption from its provisions. Even the sheep-fanner who 4ias occasion to employ only a few hands or who finds his shearers among the casual labourers in his own locality or who employs, as many sheep-farmers on the East Coast of the North Island do } Maoris to do his shearing will be ' required to supply the accommodation that, in terms of the Bill, is necessary in order that it may be deemed 1 to be " proper and sufficient " within the meaning of the law. And in the respect that it would require a farmer with only a small flock to erect a five-roomed 1 or even a four-roomed cottage for the convenience of his shearers for, at the I most, a, few days in the year, the Bill iis clearly unreasonable. The precise necessity for the measure is, however, not apparent. The existing law provides for the appointment of inspector?, whose duty it is to see — subject to an exception in favour of owners of small flocks — that proper and sufficient accommodation is provided at every shed for the comfort and health of the shearer?, nnd machinery exists whereby employers may be required to provide such accommodation. And it is difficult to see why, if this law is efficiently administered, there should be any necessity for the enactment of the Bill which is now before Parliament. As the result of a very general inspection which was made last season throughout the Do- V minion, the Secretary for the Department of Labour unhesitatingly asserts ■ in his annual report that the whole standard of housing of shearers will j be very much raised and that " those employed will find an enormous im- : prorement effected over the conditions ruling a few years ago." In the Otago and Southland district, it is admitted by the shearers themselves, who niaj' ccrtpinly not bo quite so fastidious a.s ■ thc^e ihe Bill of this year is designed I to satisfy, that the accommodation U>

not only much better than, it formerly was but tkat it is an altogether exceptional case where it is not entirely suitable; and- we should be surprised to learn that the experience of Otago and Southland was not to a greater or less extent the experience also in other parts of the Dominion. Except in so far as there- is any need for -extending • the inspection of shearers' accommodation to that provided by the owners of small flocks, the existing law might; be presumed to be sufficient. Amd it should be manifest that the proposed legislation is of such a kind as would press with undue severity upon the farmers who are exempted from, the application of the law as it stands.