FARM LABOUR PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1468, 17 June 1912, Page 8

FARM LABOUR PROBLEM.

VIEWS OF A SOUTHERN FARMER-

The shortage of farm labour was the subject of. comment by Jlr. .1. Talbot, at the Provincial Conference of the Farmers' Union at Timaru on Saturday. This shortage, said Jlr. Talbot, was evidently felt in all parts of the Dominion, and. in other tfades and industries than farming. The contention made by some new papers and speakers that the conditions surrounding country employment woro responsible for the shortage in the rase of the farming community was therefore not wholly correct. In the competition between the town and the country for labour tho town would always win. To the youth of both sexes nothing could bo done by way of improvement to the conditions of country employment that would compensate for the freedom and tho round of pleasure that town life now provides. Nevertheless it was both necessary and desirable that everything possibio should be done to make the conditions of country employment as attractive as they can l>o made. It was suggested for one thing that cottages should be provided by farmers and married men employed instead of single ones; nNo it; was proposed that the State should extend the svstem of building workers' dwellings to tho farming districts. Ttot.li ■suggestions were very good ones, especially the latter, but life wa.i of opinion that ownership rather than leasing would be tho best terms to offer, both for Iho State and the individual. AVith regard to the former suggestion, though it was nn excellent one and now adopted In some extent, it was evident lit could only be. extended to a limited dogrre for various reasons. Many married mou do not ctire abouf'team work, and th-ere-wns also the fart that farmers who can afford to build the necessary cottages are a decreasing number, as they are themselves being driven to shift, their residence to the towns, largely by the trouble expenionced in getting domestic help, and labour troubles generally.

"A flow of words,, is no proof of wisdom," l)iit it is a positive fnct that the How of whey which takes plnre when cheese faelory milliliters use "Victor" Vats Jowls to the improvement of the cheese. Full particulars and copies of testimonials from (he maker, A. .f. I'arton, Registered Plumber, Carterlon.