FARMERS AND WAGES

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3304, 2 June 1931, Page 4

FARMERS AND WAGES

INDIRECTLY AFFECTED. ADDITIONS TO THEIR COSTS. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. “ The workers’ advocates contended that a reduction in money wages would not materially assist the primary producer, while it would detrimentally affect internal trade by diminishing the purchasing power of the community,” said Mr Justice Frazer in the Arbitration Court today. “ It is true that the average farmer will not be assisted to a great extent by a reduction of money wages payable under awards and _ industrial agreements, if the reduction be regarded as applying only to wages directly paid by him,” continued His Honour. “ The wages and conditions of ordinary farm labour are not regulated by awards of this Court, and it is only in respect of certain casual and seasonal branches of farm work such as mustering, shearing, and threshing, that the farmer comes under the direct jurisdiction of the Court. He is, however, indirectly, affected by the wages and conditions ’prescribed by the Court for workers in meat-freezing wlorks and butter factories, in which the produce of his land is prepared for market. He is indirectly affected, also, by the wages cost of transport and distribution. As a consumer, of course, he is. indirectly affected by labour costs. in all his purchases, whether for his own domestic consumption or for the working of his farm. Even in respect of goods that are not manufactured in New Zealand a percentage of their cost to the farmer must be allotted to labour costs of transport, handling, and distribution in this country.”