FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 56, 29 November 1907, Page 2

FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

A SMALL FARMER'S EVIDENCE. BOY LABOUR. (DT TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.). „ Christchurch,- Novomber 28. A small farmer, in tho course bf his evidence in tho agricultural labourers', dispute, described the progress made by a ,boy who had learned farming' , with him. jHe had got tho boy from the Burnham.Reformatory, and started him at half-a-crown.a week with everything found on little, jobs about the farm. Ho later increased his wages and taught him farming, and at eighteen years old gave him £1. He was now, ■at twentytwo, one of the best men in New Zealand. If he. had not been able to employ him at a low wage to start he could never have employod that boy. He had now another boy in hand, and was paying. 10s. a week. • Later on .this same boy (17. years old) gave evidence. He admitted that learning farm work was harder than he expected, but he did not think his wages were too low;'and he frankly said that lie often wondered how his employer' had patience-to bother with him..; He was treated likeono of the family, had plenty of leisure, and took.,music lessods. , Farm work was not by any means drudgery,, and ho found it a pleasure. Out of 10s. a week he could save £1& to £20 a year, and he was porfectly.- satisfied. The father of the. boy said he was perfectly.satis r find with his ; son , s position. If the minimum wage was fixed at 17s. 6d. the lad could not have got that or any other billet, and the proposals themselves would have .blocked him. ' ■ ' ' ' •' ■ ■ . ".'' ', One of tho witnesses in'the dispute said that thero was no comparison between the English farm labourer who caine to Now Zoidand and a New Zoalander. The.emigrant was a better man physically, with harder and bigger muscles, and on.work that he know could "run'rings round" the New Zealander. He- was in serious difficulty, however,' when he had to handle implements of which ho knew nothing.. He quoted the caso of two men from the North of Ireland, who, although good hands with the swing plough, had never seen- , a . double furrow, plough or,.a binder till, they .landed here. Consequently they: were almost useless for a considerable timei ■-.■.: :