FARM "LABOUR TROUBLES"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 129, 14 July 1941, Page 4

FARM "LABOUR TROUBLES"

Sir, —Perhaps 3 T our editorial com-, ment on the announcement "owing to labour trouble" seen in soms clearing sale advertisements may lead, some readers to mis-interpret the word "trouble." It has a variety of meanings. The phrase "owing to labour trouble" is a brief and con-» venient one to' use hi sale advertise* ments, and it is the of stock auctioneers to> get prices for their clients. However "labour trouble" does; not necessarily mean that farm owners on the one side, and farm hands or sharemilkers on the other, have camei to blows or even parted company after an argil* ment. All it does mean is that the vendor of the stock has publicly entered hia protest against the shortage of men for land work—a short* age that has become more acute under war conditions. I think there always has been a shortage of lan«i workers, however far one goes back, whether to 1935, to 1914, 1840, 1066 or the Year One. Nobody wants to milk cows or soil his hands in clean dirt, if there are other jobs offer-* ing. One reason for some clearing sales "owing, to labour trouble"' is that single men doing the milking have joined the Army and cannot be replaced by the usual method, of coaxing away some other farmer's workers. In some cases a family has lost its right-hand man through enlistment and has retired from the milking business and drifted into town, sometimes the old folks seizing the chance to jpin the "great majority'" now on the Social Security Agei Benefit list. Army pay and allowances, being what they ire, some youngish men have been able to throw up farm jobs to join the Forces and leave dependants better off than when all \tere working at cow-milking. In lots of ways people are discovering how to exist and even to render good service to the country without milking cows. This has caused tremendous "casualties'* in the ranks of the Co,w-milkers. No wonder farmers are selling off their cows and making other plans. But this does not mean that there lias been "labour trouble" in the sense of fisticuffs, rioting and uproar on dairy farms. Perhaps it would be more correct if our auctioneering firms used the phrase "labour shortage'" instead of "labour trouble." It would mean the same thing, and might allay the fears of timid people in the towns who read the advertisements. Yoiirs etc., NOT TROUBLED.