SUGAR AND TEA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23323, 5 October 1945, Page 4

SUGAR AND TEA

Rations For Shearers Request For Adequate Allowance (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 4. In the House of Representatives this afternoon Mr W. S. Goosman (National. Waikato) asked the Minister of Supply to ensure that farmers received adequate rations for shearers and shedhands during the present shearing season. Mr Goosman said that' one of his constituents with 3000 sheep to shear was allowed only 31b of tea, 121 b of sugar and 21b of butter, and had to go short in his own household to provide sufficient for the shearers and shedhands, whereas during the same period a Maori tangi was held in the same district and the Maoris were allowed 7(Mb of sugar, a box of butter and 121 b of tea. The Hon. D. G. Sullivan, replying, said the rations for shearing gangs were fixed at their present levels after consultation with the New Zealand Workers' Union and the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. The combined ordinary rations and supplementary allowances granted these workers were 7oz of tea, 360 z of sugar and Boz of butter a week. Tea and sugar were the shearers’ predominant requirements and it would be seen from the figures’ given that their sugar ration was much in excess of the ordinary domestic ration of 12oz and their tea ration more than three times the domestic ration. The butter ration also compared favourably with that for other workers. Mr Sullivan said that without more detailed information he could not comment on the examples quoted by Mr Goosman. except to say that allowances at scale rates were made to Maori tangis as to other gatherings of a similar nature, and these rates were far below’ those for shearers The latter were generous under present conditions, and no increase was contemplated.