The Scarcity of Labour

Southland Times, Issue 14516, 16 December 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Scarcity of Labour

The attempt (says The Times) in England to lay upon our present system of education the blame for the scarcity of agricultural labour has not commanded general assent. It is becoming recognised that, whatever part education may have had in widening the labourer’s knowledge and so raising his ambition, there are other causes at work which would have operated had rural education remained what it was fifty years ago. There is, however, a widespread feeling that the education given in our village schools is too exclusively bookish ; that the mere fact of its having so little to do with country life and pursuits helps to wean the children’s minds from country life ; and that its unpractical character partly accounts for the low estimation in which it is admittedly held by country people, from the magistrate on the bench to the labourer in his cottage. Various suggestions have been made, and experiments have been tried, but not on any sufficient scale to form a trustworthy basis for educational reform. The Education Department, which to some critics appears the font et orujo which may possibiy in the past have insisted too much upon uniformity for all schools alike, in town or country, for the miners and artisans of the north and peasants of the south, has recognised the need of more variety. Its Code, as now arranged, gives abundant opportuntity for adapting the subjects and methods of education to the needs of different localities. But hitherto, it appeaas, little advantage has been taken of these opportunities, and elementary education moves on very much in the old ruts, as far as its curriculum is concerned; partly, perhaps, as suggested by the writer of a paper on this subject published by us on September 4, because school managers are ignorant of what the Code contains; still more, we should imagine, because both teachers and inspectors find it easier to keep to familiar ground. Managers, as a rule, know next to nothing about the teaching in their schools. A departmental fiction assumes that they determine it, but in practice it is settled by the head teachers, with one eye on the Government inspector, and the other on the Government grant. The real obstacle in too many cases to any remodelling of the curriculum is the fear of imperilling the grant As- originally conceived by Mr Lowe, and as embodied in earlier codes, the ‘ payment by results’ system nearly killed elementary education. In its present greatly modified form it still acts as a hindrance by diverting the attention of managers and teachers alike from what is educationally best to what is financially remunerative.

The Standard says that the continued scarcity of agricultural labourers is particularly unfortunate at the present moment. It is being felt, in varying degrees, all over England, but more especially, according to recent reports, in the county of Kent. A great deal of corn is still standing, which, with the weather we have enjoyed, should have been cut and carried long ago. All our grain crops are usually levelled by the end of the first week in September. Wheat, in a fine season, if allowed to become over-ripe, is apt to deteriorate, and the present lack of labour threatensto inflict a serious injury on the farmer. Apart from manj' other causes to which it is attributable, one is specially active just now in the southern and seaboard counties. In the seaside towns and villages which are the holiday resorts of Londoners, the building trade is now so busy that a fairly good workman can earn more than double the wages which be would receive as a farm labourer. Kent has never been a county in which agricultural wages ranged high, and the whole yearly income of an ordinary farm hand in that district does not, probably, exceed forty pounds, even if it amounts to that. The builder, however, can offer him as much as thirty shillings a week, and consequently it is no wonder that he leaves the wheat, barley, and oats to take care of themselves. We may ask what is to be done without finding a very ready answer. No philanthropic schemes of rural improvement will produce the desired effect, so long as the towns hold out such counter attractions. . . . The births in tho vil-

lages are, it is said, becoming fewer every year; and if we look for the thews and sinews which were formerly to be seen among the Norfolk peasantry, we shall find them in our dockyards, on our railwavs, on the long lines ot scaffolding which everywhere denote the spread of city life, and the provision of more lucrative employment for youth, strength, and industry. The prospect is not a pleasant one to contemplate. But every year tells the same tale, and we must face the facts with what courage we may.