PRECARIOUS MAIZE GROWING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 79, 8 June 1943, Page 4

PRECARIOUS MAIZE GROWING

DEALING more or less with the question of 'picking' only the report of the Eastern Bay'X)f-'Plenty tPrimary Production Council's meeting would lead the average reader to

suppose that all was well as far as the maize growing industry on the Bangitaiki was concerned. Such however is not the case, and is in fact very far removed from the actual position experienced by the average grower in this district. The main problems are the questions of labour and costs. These two features date back in the main to the availability of Maori pickers and the rates they demand per acre. In pre war days a grower could look forward with a reasonable degree of certainty to having all his plucking done at something like 25/- to 30/- per acre. The position to-day is that a person is lucky to get the work done at less than £4 or £5 per acre. But the problem does not end there for whereas in the past communities of Maoris were. in the habit of camping on the property adjoining the maize patch, to-day the labour available is so limited that it is mainly confined to women, and these have to be transported daily to the job before they can be expected to carry out the work. The maize picking machines which the. growers have heard so much about for the past three years which would revolutionise the industry, have failed to materialise though they are expected, so the report states, next August. There has surely been ample time and sufficient experience 1 for the Government, to have acquired these machines long before the present season. As it is today the grower claims that his costs are increased by as much as a shilling per bushel on account of the labour shortage and the increased cost of picking. Either this additional cost must be offset by increasing the selling price or else; the Government must be prepared to see a diminishing quantity of maize grown in this area.