THE FARM AND LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1446, 22 May 1912, Page 10

THE FARM AND LABOUR.

FARMERS' i UNION ORGANISER'S VIEWS. Referring to the dairying industry during the course of his address at Levin, on the work of the New Zealand- Farmers Union, .Mr. J. C. Fowler, provisional organiser of the union, argued that a good deal of the present day labour agitation came from Sydney. He did not say that the legislation came entirely from New South Wales, but a great deal of its inspiration. came from the Australian continent. If they remembered wlieli the dispute took place in Canterbury between the Canterbury- Fai'in Labourers' L T ni6n and tho farmers of Canterbury, it was then endeavoured to prove that it was (iiiito possible for a dairy farm to be worked on fixed hours; but the Fanners Union was able to put facts before tho Court, with the result that no award was made. The tiling was not dead by any means. It was. very active, and he did not know whether they were aware of tlie fact that at the very time the Farm Labourers' Union was formed in Canterbury it was also formed in tho Wellington province, and ho believed for industrial purposed tho Hawke's Baj- and Wellington provinces formed one district. lo work a dairy farm on fixed wages was,' to his mind, impossible. The terms demanded by tho Australian labour- people, which, ho "took 'it, would apply here, were: Milkers, 355. a week and found; youths,, for anyone under 17 years 225. (id. and found, on forty-eight hours a week. The Labour people also demanded the total abolition of child labour during school age. Who would tell him with any semblance of truth that, the dairy farmer would bo in the position he was to-day if ho had not been able to rely on the assistance of his own boys and gi T I s 9 . Referring to sheep farmers, Mr. Fowler dealt -with the dispute.some.,time-ago in H&wke's Bay; The shepherds and'shearera formed a union. Drovers.and shepherds wages were to bo .£3 IDs. (and found) on a fifty-four hours' week. And the drover or sliepherd must not attend to anyone's sheep but his own employer's. The speaker also gave numerous other examples where exorbitant wago claims were made, and pointed out that when the Farmers' Union took the case before the Courts they were able to prove that shepherds were farm labourers. The Court then awarded 12s. Gd. a day wages; this was less than they were receiving, and in reply to the taunt that the Farmers' Union'would, if it could, reduce wages, Jlr. Fowler pointed out that the union declined to take advantage of the Court's decision, and continued to pay the higher rate then prevailing. But for the union, farmers' sons working in their fathers' sheds would have had to have been paid union rates of wages. By a proviso inserted into the award it was decreed that such conditions should not apply to farmers' sons working in their fathers' sheds.