THRESHING MILL WAGES

Southland Times, Issue 19478, 30 March 1922, Page 2

THRESHING MILL WAGES

To the Editor. Sir, —In to-day’s paper appears a paragraph in. regard to the award rate of 1/10 per hour for threshing, and that the farmers say with the current price of produce, they cannot afford that amount, and they are offering 1/3 and should that not be accepted, they will probably assist one another and thresh their own. Now, there are one or two questions and statements I would like to make on the subject. The first is: How did the farmers afford 1/9, 1/10J and 1/11 per hour Last year? This was paid in different districts last year. I worked on a mill last year and got l/10| per hour during three months while at the job, and the only thing the farmer got more for last year than he is getting this, is wheat, which as anyone knowswho read the Statistician’s figures lately, does not affect the majority of the Southland farmers. Then take the following: Wool is 50 per cent better in price this year, oats are worth at least 25 per cent, more than, at this time last year, with much heavier crops all over the district. Sheep are double the price they were twelve months ago. Don't take my word for it, sir, but ask the mercantile firms, and see if I am wrong. Grass seed, too, is payable at 3/6 per bushel. So what have the farmers got to complain about? Then I would like to ask how the farmers think a man with a family js getting on at 1/3 an hour? I know for my part, even if I was getting in eight hours a day at 1/3, it would not keep my house going; how then am 1 to make ends meet? Of course, the farmer will say: look at the terrible harvest weather, the crops arc spoiling in the paddocks for want of good weather. Yes sir, this is admitted, but, how am I getting on when I am making no money owing to the same bad weather? Let some of these same farmers who are squealing so loud, take their blankets and follow the mill for a month from now and make their bunk every night in some other man’s barn or loft, with a bag of chaff to sleep on, the same as the ordinary millhand has to do, and I venture to remark, they will not repeat it next year. I think the paragraph referred to does not apply to the general run of farmer, only to the few, for as it was pointed out in your paper a short time ago, If the men agreed to work for nothing the farmer would only save about 4/- an acre. One other thing, sir: It was the executive of the Farmers’ Union who fixed the prices both of the mill-owner and the men, and when doing so, reduced the mill-owner’s fees about 10 per cent, and the men’s 33 per cent., and I say—as a member of the Farmers’ Union —it is a gross injustice to the wages man. I am, etc., A LOVER OF FAIR PTAY.