LABOUR ON FARMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 18764, 20 December 1935, Page 9

LABOUR ON FARMS.

(To the Editor.) ' Sir, —Something will have to be done without delay to provide labour on the farms of the Dominion. The position has been difficult enough for some time, but to-day it is desperate in many district's. Surely the various branches of the Farmers’ Union could do' something to effect an improvement. I could give you cases where old people have had to go into the sheds to milk, not because they wanted to, or because the owners of the places were not prepared to pay a reasonable wage, but simply because they cannot get labour. The strain on some women will take a heavy toll later on, for many of them are not lilted for the work. Their duties in the house are heavy enough. 1 have been told that the farmers in the Putaruru district have been in touch with the Minister of Labour, and others should do the same thing. The new Government knows that its biggest problem is to solve unemployment, yet on the farms in the Waikato hundreds of men could be given work. One man told me on Tuesday that he would guarantee to place one hundVed men in his district alone, and mentioned a case where an old man and. a lad had to milk a herd of nearly one hundred cows because no labour could be obtained. Then the demand for men for haymaking lias been met by demands for higher wages than many farmers could possibly pay. I heard a practical farmer say that the demands in his district had risen nearly 75 per cent., and even then labour was scarce. Now, if the old ■Government had been in office we would have let them know that this sort of thing would not do, and it will not do whatever Government controls affairs. Let there he no mistake about it, this is a real problem, and it is up to the authorities to do something, and to do it soon. —I am, etc., K. Matamata, December 10.