FARM LABOUR CONDITIONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19127, 23 September 1936, Page 3

FARM LABOUR CONDITIONS

(To thfl Editor of the Herald.)

Sir.—l have just finished reading, a letter signed "Cowboy Dick" in the Herald. It is apparent that, this correspondent is not very well acquainted with farming conditions in this 1 district, ami his experience has been, confined to one or two farms' where Ihe conditions are better than usual. Writing of my own experience of working on farms and stations, about Poverty Bay and the Fast Coast for the last 12 years, .1 can only agree with your correspondent ol last Tuesday. It is hardly a. cause for wonder' that men are reluctant to take up farm work, at the present time, when one looks back over the last, six or seven years and remembers the wages and conditions of this kind of work, when wages have been as low as 5s for boys, and these, same boys were told they were lucky to get the work and their food without the wage being taken into consideration at all.

Thes* conditions, other than wages, are still the same to-day. The food and sleeping accommodation are. not changed at all.' In the majority "of cases the food is not of a good quality; in fact, one station on the Fast Coast where, 1 worked used to supply Ihe hands with mutton killed from the cull rams. Bui the, practice is to kill the old ewes that will not fatten enough lo send oil the place and give them to the men tor mini-ton.

Aliout horns of work on dairy Farms: It is the practice in most cases to milk early and late and the man or men employed on Hie place lo be given a Rood day's work to do between milking*. It is'a Fact, also. Hint Hie sleeping accommodation on most dairy Farms, could be greatly improved. This accommodation is usually a so-called wliaro built as cheaply and as small as possible for the niimbeV of men it is intended lo house. In nine cases out of 10, these wharcs are flea-infested, caused' by generations oT dogs sleeping underneath, and also From the men not having sufiicienl lime lb clean I heir qiinrtrrs properly. Their only lime for this- task is on Sunday as they have none during the week. 11 is just sleep, eat'and work. These are all facts I have written and it would he better if such persons as "Cowboy Dick" Rained a little more experience of farm life and work before lie wrote, of the conditions the farm hands, work under. There are some farms' where the ■workers' conditions are excellent, but unfortunately these are not, very many.— Yours, etc., EX-FARMHAND'.