The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1936. MEN FOR TEE LANE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13372, 28 September 1936, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1936. MEN FOR TEE LANE.

The Agricultural Workers Bill, fixing wages and. conditions on farms, comes into force on October 1. It has been claimed that as soon as the new conditions operate, there will be no shortage of labour; but as an offset to. this is the evidence of the increasing drift of labour from the farms since the Bill was introduced in the House, on August 14. A basic wage will shortly be fixed for ail adult workers covered by awards. Hours and conditions in most urban jobs will be more than competitive with those on farms. Against this pull away from the farms there is the fact that the land worker has no broken time, a steadier job, and probably fewer incidental expenses. Respite this, the event clearly shows how, the scales in town and country affect the supply' of farm labour. The Government’s intervention in the economic sphere has been so drastic in its effect on producers that it has a plain duty to make sure the farms are fully' manned. Its economic mea. sures have upset the balance, and the Government must see, in the national as well 'as the farmers’ interest, that equilibrium is restored. Incidentally, under the bill, farm wages have been related to farm prices and therefore to l the labourer's productive value. That is a sounder principle than the arbitrary fixation ot wages and conditions enacted in the industrial laws. The Government has set a standard the farmer cannot attain. Even the basic wage is not to lie tor the farm worker unless he forms unions and so qualifies fear it. The whole policy is full of the mute confession, that the Government is not prepared to impose on the farmer conditions it has applied to other employers. In a. word, the fine flower of its industrial legislation is for sheltered industries and not for those which must face the world; and the guaranteed price does not negative this. It may be a. tacit recognition of realities, but there is nothing in it all to cheek the steady, even if gradual, drift of labour from the farm to callings where all these benefits may be enjoyed.