A JUST GROUCH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 115, 26 January 1940, Page 4

A JUST GROUCH

ADVERTISERS for farm labour in the BEACON state that the position as it stands to-day in securing hands of reasonable experience, knowledge and initiative is practically hopeless. An Edgecumbe farmer recently claimed that after half a dozen attempts to find a satisfactory man he has reached the conclusion that the general opinion of twenty years ago, that only the misfits, the hangers-on and the ne'er d'o-wells were good enough, for farm work, still held good. In other words the superfluous riff-raff from the cities were quite capable of undertaking the running of the Dominions most vital industry. This contention would appear to be borne out to some extent by the statements of other farmers who claim that many of the farm hands to-day, in spite of their ignorance of the work consider themselves fuVly equipped.to carry out in proper manner duties of herd management which have taken the farmer himself years to assimilate. In return they expect higher wages, shorter hours and better conditions. This may appear to be extreme, .but in many cases our informants have, and can vouch for the facts 1 . A study of the conditions will prove just what has led up to the crippling of our most important industry. Firstly, hundreds of young prospective farmers, acting as hands in the ordinary course of events, forsook the land for the higher paid, less onerous positions which became open in the towns and P.W.D. shortly after the lifting of the slump. This position was met by many a retired man going baqk to the land, and also with the reintroduction of women in the sheds. The industry had barely righted itself when the call for men for overseas service, drained the primary producers of hundreds more. Unfortunately on both these occasions the new avenues drew off the best of the workers, but particularly in the latter instance where only men of perfect physique, intelligence and initiative were accepted. Thus has the land .been sapped of its workers. How, therefore, can it be expected to respond to the call of greater production to meet the strong calls of the Motherland. True, no agricultural workers are being placed on the active military forces. As seen recently they are posted to a reserve which may or may not be called upon. True, the P.W.D. has undertaken to find workers (inexperienced) to meet all demands, and further will undertake to subsidise the employing farmer for a period of six months. All these offers of co-operation and openhandedness on the part of the Government appear very laud able in themselves,, but they are completely nullified if as so many district farmers complain, the average individual supplied for farm assistance, is little more than a complete ignoramus, with a false value of his own capabilities, and an exaggerated idea of his importance and earning power. The farmer claims that his wants are simple enough—men of average intelligence,, ordinary decency and a genuine capacity for reasonable hard work.