WORKERS FOR THE COUNTRY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2504, 3 July 1915, Page 3

WORKERS FOR THE COUNTRY.

Sir,—Kindly allow me space to. reply to the letter of "One of tho People Who Knows" ill your Tuesday's: issue, oil the above subject. That- scribe claims to be a farmer, but I-think 'his' -stock must consist of two ducks and a,drake; no'farmer would write such fudge, -He repeats the labour agitator's time-woni wheeze about - t'he 10w... wages, in the country, but T desire to ask the public to answer , whether .the shearer's, wages' of up to; £12 per week, and found ;and tlie cadets of not loss than. 10a. and ■found do not compare irioro ably with the highest- and: lowest' .wages' paid for manual labour in town? 'What wages' are apprentices at trades .in. town paid? Is it not ill the vicinity of from ss. to:10s. a week and find themselves? As regards . marrying and looking for- positions in the country: lr as a young mau l could not. earn a home, of',my own .for the girl of ,my choice I would stay single - all my life sooner-than marry' her, and take'her into; such unsatisfactory;-slavery/ /Your correspondent's remarks about-the customary advertisement, of "Wanted/man and. wife, without encumbrances'' go to prove he knows nothing:of the'employer's sido of this question., The writer >has for : -many : years employed men. ;with' /families,. ; but^,l' am lucky enough. to be -able to plant 'tho family about a mile , away, which- is • quite near enough. My;own. household can break and lose enough of our goods and chattels without any assistance." The/employer having' a family of his own who would place his "employee,':, also with'j a family, in part of.his house or cottage adjoining is ' an. utter fool. He , might as well put two liens in one coop, and, both- having' chickens, 1 expect''tliein: not to light. A s for our pseudo-farmer friend's, scheme, of small country sections for workers, I have such a. scheme before .my eyes/every day of my. life. It was started on good land, too,, twenty years ago, and ended in dismal failure,, in so much as those who could not sell out ,to. their larger. neighbours. walked out, and .vacant : sections \yero; : an -eyesore to the district,, until this' Eand Board permitted -some reaggregation to take place. No, sir,-the best'way. the Government can help the workers is to bring in a- compulsory savings Act to' apply to all single workers, arid put the money out at the'best rate of interest obtainable —not .the miserable 3J pei- cent, of the Post Office Savings Bank. In.conclusion,: let me point 'out tho injury your correspondent and such as he aro doing to tho masses. The cost of living is admittedly extreme. How can wo lower it?! Simply by producing more of the necessities of' life .than can bo consumed.' Those/necessities aro in the main 1 products of the country. 'Why try to tie the farmers' hands by frightening labour away from him, thus limiting his- production and raising- the coat of Hvina' still limliorP—l am, oto,,