SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19423, 7 September 1937, Page 3

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

WAIKATO FARMERS PUBLIC WORKS I'.I,AM F,I) (Special lo tlio HVvald.) AUCKLAND, this day. A concrete example of the impossible task faced by Auckland dairyfarmers in trying to obtain experienced labour was provided by the owner of a large farm in the Waikato. This man. who had been trying for some weeks to find a married couple for milking and had travelled over 200 miles in the course 1 of a vain search and tried every agency in the city, declared that he fell almost at the end of his tether. So far as he could see, the only course left to him was to sell one of his herds and reduce the production which he had steadily built up on a property developed by him from the rough. His farm, he explained, carried 250 cows and was a really efficient production unit. To an experienced married couple he offered £5 a week with cottage, free milk and firing and the use of land for a vegetable garden. If the couple would provide food for Iwo men he would allow an additional "(Is a wee!;. On these terms he had been unable to find anyone who would consider the proposition for a moment. "I have no doubt at all that the present Government's public works programme is to blame for this situation," he said. "When it was started the very first-class of man to apply was the efficient farm-hand, married or single. I know it from my own experience. I do not blame the men lit all. No farmer would offer U 10s for a .l(l-hour week, and to-day you Will not get a man to leave thai for a Linger week and C2 IDs. which is more than the legal minimum wage for a single farm-hand." Shortage of labour last season, the farmer continued, had caused his butterfat production to drop 50001 b. and his costs had gone up 1 5-1(1(1. per lb. butterfat. This season he foresaw a further drop and a further increase hi costs which the new prices were unlikely lo meet.