The Star. FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1908. FARM LABOURERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9302, 31 July 1908, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1908. FARM LABOURERS.

The labour agitators who have done meet of the talking in connection with the unemployed meetings have> been as unstinted as they have been unthinking in their condemnation of the Government's policy in advertising the dominion, at Home. As a result of that policy, they said, the country had been flooded with superfluous labour, that the newcomers had come into competition with the -workers born on the soil, and as there was not enough work for all, hands, the dominion had been brought face to face with the unemployed problem. Yet the unemployed question had cropped up periodically before the Government began to encourage immigration, and might have been very pressing during the past few years but for the fact that this province at least has just passed through a succession of favourable seasons. During this time there has been plenty of work everywhere, and there was no outcry. We have the Farmers' Conference in Wellington just now, ./and it is interesting to read the commentary of that gathering, on the immigration policy of the Government: The Conference is urging upon the Government " the necessity of importing an adequate supply of farm and domestic labour," and is asking thjat the Government should " take more active steps for the immigration of farm labourers from the United Kingdom." Instances were given of the wrong kind of men coming out and the difficulty of finding capable farm workers, but one delegate, who evidently had a better knowledge of affairs than his fellows, put tho matter in a nutshell when he said that there were capable men in the cities, but they would not leave the cities to go into the country. That is the real explanation of the dearth of farm servants on the farm, and the reason is not far to seek. There is a feeling that farm work is only for the single man. It is natural and right that every man should desire to marry the woman of his choice. It is an equally rigHt and natural desire on a man' 9 part to be able to provide a home for his wife and the family she may bring him. But there are not many farms in New Zealand where decent provision is made for the accommodation of a married servant and his-. wife. In the absence of such, accommodation the young fellow with the hope of matrimony in his breast seeks the city or the town. He may be an unskilled labourer, but h& can "take his chance with the others in the large centres of population, and he does it, and the farmer loses a useful man. There are, we do not doubt, plenty of able farm workers in the towns and cities, but these men are married, and, being so, are not wanted on tEe farms. Th© solution of the problem is not very obvious, but in this matter, at least, the farmer s-hould not find it difficult to discover the moral.