FARM LABOUR AVAILABLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 July 1931, Page 5

FARM LABOUR AVAILABLE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—This claptrap of the farmers is putting New Zealand out of focus and will end rather than mend the legislation which has been framed to relieve distress and unemployment if persisted in. Surely, the member of the executive of the Farmers’ Union has been misreported in the statement attributed to him in your, issue of Saturday, which reads as follows:—“During. a discussion on unemployment at a meeting of the North-Taranaki branch of the Farmers’ Union in New [Plymouth yesterday a member of the executive stated that he had been trying to secure a labourer for six weeks, and had not been successful.” A false' impression has already been created by the circulation of the paragraph. During the last week your own paper has contained advertisements from farm labourers in search of employment, and it is a well-known fact that when a farmer advertises he gets enough men applying to supply all his neighbours with any labour they require, as well as satisfying his own needs; numbers of men - are also holding down their jobs for the milking season without any remuneration to be received during the weeks the cows are dry. Of my own personal knowledge farmers have not been registering at the local labour agencies during the six weeks referred to. The impression created by the statement attributed to the member of the executive of the Farmers’ Union is altogether a misleading one. There is no dearth of farm labour in Taranaki, and there is therefore no justification for outside labour to come in at present. What is wanted just now, from men in responsible positions, is clear judgment, sanity and ability to grow up mentally, and io assist to right the wrong in society, not to arouse opposition and illwill from the workers. In conclusion, I affirm that there is no shortage of farm labour in Taranaki, 'but. that this farmer has been looking for it in wrong Channels if he has failed to locate it, and if he spends a few shillings in an advertisement in the Daily News he will get nearly as great a shock as the local business man who recently put in an advertiserrient for an office boy. He found a few hundred boys outside his doorway before breakfast, anxious for the position.—l am, etc., ARTHUR B. GIBSON.'