WASTED LABOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 7

WASTED LABOUR.

Too Many Young Men in Camps. FARMERS WITHOUT WORKERS. (Special to the “Star.”* AUCKLAND, Novmber 29. While New Zealand farmers, upon whose well-being the fortune? of everyone in the Dominion depend, appeal in vain for men to work on their farms, an anaemic Government policy continues to allow young and vigorous men to waste their energy and the unfortunate taxpayers’ money in relief camps (says the “New Zealand Herald”). In one city newspaper last week appeared 263 : advertisements for farm workers. In the same week, throughout New Zealand, hundreds of able-bodied single men were working at trifling tasks in return for sustenance from an indulgent Government. To bathe in the luxury of doing good may easily become a vice, especially when someone el~e provides the wherewithal for the indulgence, and the Government, from its over-sentimental warmth of heart, is doing harm rather than good in its dealings with unemployed single young men. The harm caused by the diversion of these men from the land to the relief camp is obvious where the farming industry is concerned, and it is evident also in the gradual sapping of self-reliance from those who are being favoured. Wide Call for Labour. The preference for relief work which the unemployed are showing this season was experienced also last year, so that farmers are net for the first time having difficulty in securing labour. Last Saturday in one newspaper appeared fiftyfour advertisements for farm hands of various kinds, men, youths and married couples. For youths and young men wages from 10s to 30s a week were offered. The numbers of similar advertisements appearing throughout the week were: Monday 47, Tuesday 45, Wednesday 40, Thursday 38, Friday 39. Yet farmers still complain that to get any response is as difficult as getting blood from a stone. In some instances also personal canvassing of relief camps ha? been equally unsuccessful. Mr F. Lill, of Christchurch, stated to-day that there was no demand in Canterbury at present for farm workers. The only explanation he could suggest to account for the unsatisfied demand in Auckland was that the wages offered were too low.

QUESTIONS OF POLICY.

Auckland Conference to Review Position. per Press Association. AUCKLAND, November 29. Convened by the Mayor of Auckland at the instigation of the Farmers’ Union, a conference will be held tomorrow of representatives of many metropolitan local bodies and organisations to discuss unemployment. Among other questions to be considered are: Whether the present relief system is satisfactory, and, if not, what could take its place, whether trade union conditions should be restored and working hours reduced; whether all relief works should be abolished and sustenance payments substituted; whether support should be given to the demands for a Government inquii-y into the monetary and credit system; and whether there should be national planning of industry.