FARMING NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12894, 5 February 1906, Page 7

FARMING NOTES.

A " South. Canterbury Sheep Farmer"' contributes the following amongst other notes to the •' Pastoralists' Review" for .January: Shearers have been scarce, especially machine men, and the .supply of the'latter is likely to continue uncertain unless more opportunities are given, to the vcung local men to learn. Most of the imen belong to the -onion,, and I hear that some a?e rather inclined to assert the Spartan bvlaws of the union which'can-be enforced by the Court, with the natural result that the relations of employer and employed are often anything but happy, the unpleasant-, ness in one case compelling a neighbouring manager to dismiss the men, whereupon *hey claimed, at the instance oi their union, f full payment of the balance unshorn., a ■matter of a few thousand. The award lately made by the Arbitration Court would have been very much more oppressive had .we. not been protected by our Sheepowners' Union, and I feel certain that it Is to the interest of every sheepman to join this union, and thus help to protect l himself with the self-same weapons that are used against him. The Farmers' Union, whieh most of us at one time expected to: be our "Alma Mater." has studiously refrained from being- classified, under, the Act as an.industrial union, and having, therefore, no status in Court.. is powerless to take anv serious part in the adjustment of the intricate questions - that are taken to Court. JWhy they should persist, in view of the present labour conditions, in acting the part of a. helpless looker-on is to manv quite inexplicable, raid jas.t as illogical "as the; eo assiduously repeated in its earlier days, that party politics were to be rigidly eschewed, arid yet during the late elections they widely political platform, laying special emphasis on the freehold tenure and other leading question:? of the Opposition programme" This characteristic of absolute inconsi.-tencv was carried almost to the point vi satire at their late summer conference, I:e".j ju Ciiristeiiureh. when amongst a plethora of remit.- fr::m the branches— :;m\e tv.-i'.-<: ;. ■>> many ;., r: 0 to in the ii;;i:—;■ ,;- u cfinsei/ii.ivs motions were pas*;:l. ;;ne ag;iin:.L protection by way of opposii;? tbe liropcsed 40 j, er rent, duty on Ainovii-.n) (inifit) machinery, and the other in favour of a protective duty on and *A--w material"-—whatever tka flatter may

mean—by way of keeping out American wheat, -which at present can come in free by the 'Frisco boats, subsidised for mail purposes to the extent of £30,000. At the same time this union has done & lot of good work, but ite policy is too pacifio ior these days of struggle and turmoil, arid unless it elects to be supported by the arm of the law, it can never really stand as a temple of strength to the New. Zealand farmer. I