IN AND ABOUT THE FARM.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 188, 14 February 1913, Page 4

IN AND ABOUT THE FARM.

FARM LABOUR

VIEWS OF A WORKER. A correspondent, " Bill Hook," writing in reference to the shortage of farm labour, has the following to say :—" Once again comes the plaintive, oft-repeated wail across the land from the small farmer regarding the shortage of farm labour. Permit me to reply on the other side: This is plainly what the farmer requires: A species of agricultural automaton in the form of a man who will rise at cock-crow and work, with the exception of meal hours, until dark. If he is unlucky enough to be the cowspanker, Sunday is no excption. The monetary return is from £i to £l 5s per week and found. The quarters in which he lives are usually cheerless and uninviting, his diversions few, his leisure next to nil. From seed time to harvest such is his weary round. This is no theoretical exaggeration, but the result of extensive personal experience. Such being the circumstances, it is hardly to be wondered that the average man infinitely prefers to chance his luck at casual labour ,such as navvying, at which he can earn his gs (perhaps 10s) per diem. He has to take the risks of wet weather certainly. Supposing he averages four and a half days per week, he draws, at the 9s rate, 44s 6d per week, less £l board and lodging, he has a lalance in hand of £1 4s 6d for a thirty-six hour week. This against the sixty-six-hour week of the farm hand at £1 ss. The farmer will tell you his wage is for wet or fine, and that there is so much lost time in wet weather. I say "Nonsense!" I worked once for four months in one of the wettest parts of New Zealand. We had a rainfall of 30 inches in two months, but during the four months I had only two (or three at the outside) slack days. Then there was harness to clean and sacks to mend.

On large stations, the men's day is an eight-hour one, their wage is as good, their treatment better, and their housing beyond comparison. The small, or average farmer expects a bushel, sometimes two for his peck. The life.of those whom he employs is the essence of drudgery and monotony, with rarely anv relief. Until the farmer changes his methods, his pay, and his men's housing he will, I contend, go short of labour. He begrudges his men a rise of pay, the amount of which he would spend in one day's pleasure in town. Good season or bad, hiscry is "poverty," if his season is prosperous he does not share it in any with those whose labour has been a contributing cause.

I recently left farming (some of my days were from 5 a.m. to 6.30 p.m, for casual labour, and I have earned in three weeks £B, at the rate of 10s per diem, less £3 3s for board and lodging. It has felt to me as though I were having a holiday. An advertisement in a northern paper, which reads as follows, speaks for itself: " Man, young, six years at farming, desires position in town, any occupation, Apply, with full particulars, 'Willing.'" Does this not mean "full up," as plain as anything could. This advertiser is only one among the many at present in the Dominion who are " full up," and so long as things continue to be as they are there will be a growing number of such men.

Will any "Cockatoo" come forward with his side, and sign his name ? A letter from the theoretical townsman, who says "Go on the land," and himself stays in the town, is unnecessary.

In the matter of food I have nothing to cavil at, even a horse must have good oats.