Farmer Should Treat Employee As His Co-Partner In Ideas And Work

Chronicle (Levin), 10 June 1948, Page 6

Farmer Should Treat Employee As His Co-Partner In Ideas And Work

That production could be increaSed By ks per ceiit. ii" a farmer topk his assistants into his contidence in diScuSsing fiian&geiiieilt -planS aird by* giving them a liberal bonus on anythmg ovCr afld" abdVe tbC iibrrllftl pf6HUdtion oi tne farm, was tne opmion ekpresSed by Mlv G. 1 A. HanS6it * (Eketahuna) in the course of an address to the dairy farmers' doniefefice kt Massey College last night. This tre'atmfeht of the iiien' as Co-partiierS itt ideas and work gave them a 1'eeiing that farming aiid bfaifig and ah» open mind Were really worthwhile and they Wouid stick to the f fixiii' and the land* he said.

In order to retaiu enlplovees oii the laud and attract others to it the farmer must have an outlook broad enougii to include that of the employee as well as himself. He must be able to reconeile two points of vievv: The average fariner took a qniet satisfaetiou in improving his farm and noting any steadily-rising net r§turns due to those imporvements. The true farmer valued that extra money less for its accompanying sense1 of economic seeurity than for the fact ihat, as. a measuring rod, it had proved his own management policy to be the right one, he said. The land to him was an investment bank into which he put his cash (which was really only labour in consolidated form) and from which he drew divideiuls aecording to the correetness of his judgment based on knowledge. Personal Interest JSleeded The employee on the other hand had an active personal interest in the land only to the extent that the farmer and his neighbours would allow him to have'. Ilis interest in the farm was limited by this personal and social barrier wherever it existed. In eonsequenee man.v employees did not feel.established economicallv or socially and this was a potent factor in their drifting to the lowns wliere they would be reminded ihat they were mere employees only f oi oig'ht hours of the dav instead of lor.gei hours when in close proximity to tlieii job on the farm. "Unfortunatelv, it is the brightei and uiore •intellectual of farmers' sons and employees who feel this stultilica lion most kecniy, and they are the ones most needed 011 the farins todav zo cope witli modern developments and to raise the status of the farming profes sion in the pnblic mind," Mr. Hansen eontended. The employee Worth retaining on the land was the youth or man \tfho, because of his love of the land and all growing things, had the urge to exptess himself more and more. This ihborn desire for expression would be quenched or fanned mto name acocrdmg to the type 01 farmer with whom he worked and, ii it was not entireiy quenched, wouiu qventually flourish in the poSSbSsion oi a farm of his OWn. This problem of keeping anfbition alive was far more important aijd fundamental than any passing material problems Such as shortage of rural housing for employees. JLife on the farm, ?.s distinct from existence, was so personal and social that it Was the foundation of the whole get-up. Even when taken into partnership in the matter of ideas, those employees with eharacter would require some measuring rod whereby they might gatige the suecess or failure of their greater interest and industrv in the fafin, Mr. Hansen Said. As with the farmer himself, this measuring rod could be the increased het returns, a proportion of which could profitably go to the employee as an annual bonus. Here again,

'tlie fariner 'was investing tnOney ih- a seheme which eoitld return hiiu and his land very satisf&ctory dividends. V Sharemilking " No Solutidn ; - ' 1 Shareniilkiiig as gunerally pl'actised nowadays -is hot the farmers" true solutioii of the proht-slutring problem because it tends to ittake for oue nian being Well paid and tiie l'est (the sharemillter 's eiuployees) underpaid, ' ' said the speaker. "Tt is bettet to have all nien reeeiving from £400 to £500 a' year than oue man ' getting £-1000 and tto rest receiviiig oniy boysCwages becatis? ait even sptead: of fewa.rds n/ean§.thsft all wiil be nnxibus fd-sayVWftstb/lAnd produce every pbssiliie 'pouiid pT-./buttet;. f at. " ' / > /r '. ^ The ' treatmeht of ifieri. as ' copdrtners. nieantf th'ab s'tdck • wpuld ' be hdalthier throu^h boipgf"..'.-I6ji):ked'i ;afTdr better, there would.r be .-n'o waste at all'; the land would 'be'--b"etteiK in througli the partner's Teing '-.ze&lCHii i'p returning exerything.' tq, fcTie',.Aoil; .^the farmer coul'd Iqkvm his pi'operty . for > few days with -the ' knowledge that" ii would be looked after in' every .detail, aiid perhaps more important; than all bf those, it would ensufe .that the farmer used modern labour-saving methOds aiid that he kept up-to'^dafe in alFthings. { ' ' All this may so'und like a pleasant armchair dream. Perhaps it remains so with some farmers who have done noth: inmi about it liut I have proved that it is very workable in praetiee, " Mri flansen stated.: ... ' / : Farming 's Social Aspect Fundamental to ' farming 's • social aspect was a r.ecognition that' farming was a way of life to all employed 'iu it, and the less it became a .pleasant way of .life, the fewer helpers ; Would there be in it>. the speaker eo'iitinued. A feeling of oneness .among drstfict. farming groups was. essentifil and' was rncrelv a matter of P.utting the pyllable"uaity". into " commutiity abd* tak-, ing the "mock" out of " democrac^".^ Tbe only advertising farmers carried ofi to attract producers cohsisted aknost entireiy of free advertising in tRe newa coiumns of the" press. The impressSion thereby giyen to townspeople and some country people Was that life on the land was a wrotched, hopeiess . business and •that farmers had always been a persbcuted race. "I feel that that s'ectiomof the farming community which the Pross , makes so noisily articulate' sho'uld use more tj'utli and discretion With their public utterances, Yet 'in spife ot! this bad advertisement for life on the land We' lihd such people as eiiginecrs. and niechanics attraeted to farming because of its inereasing mechanisation and moreover, making a suecess of ■ rufal life. ' I suggest that if we farmers hkndled our free advertising. wiseiy and truthfully, we would saoiv alter the pOpular cry of 'the dt'ift to the toWns" to one of the ' wholesale exodus to thb country'." . ■ ~ ; - ■ j •; . "7. ''•>