DRIFT TO TOWNS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21336, 5 February 1941, Page 6

DRIFT TO TOWNS

FARM LABOUR SCARCE BETTER CONDITIONS A brief reference to the scarcity of good farm labour and the possibility of training young farmers was made before the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board, sitting at Hamilton today, when Harold Edward Annett, farmer, Matangi, was giving evidence in support of the exemption of a son of his sharemilker, Alfred Weir. As chairman of the Waikato Primary Production Council, witness told the board he had considered the matter of farm labour. His considered opinion was that competent farm labour was hard to obtain, and just as hard to retain. People had been attracted from farming to jobs in the towns, where they were able to work shorter hours and get better pay, besides having opportunities for enjoyment denied to men on farms. No Future Prospects Witness agreed that that trend was regrettable, but it was, unfortunately, true. A long-range view indicated that the average farm worker had little or no prospect of getting a farm of his own. The young farmer must be encouraged perhaps by some farm settlement scheme. On wages a farm worker could not save enough to purchase a farm and stock. He thought a suitable settlement scheme could be evolved and developed. Today he could place good men on farms at quite good wages. Continuing, witness said such men would have a prospect, to a limited extent, of eventually acquiring farm | property. Years ago men were able i to obtain a footing in farming with less cash than was needed to-day. A man with only an axe and a tent could not now walk on to a holding and eventually make good, like men of some decades ago.