WORKERS ON LAND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 16, 14 October 1943, Page 4

WORKERS ON LAND

Possibility Of Direction To City Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, October 13. Referring to the position as disquieting, a member of tlie Auckland .Provincial Council of Primary Production asked at yesterday’s meeting for information concerning the possibility of labour being directed away from vegetable gardens to work in the city. Mr. M. McDougall stated that the manager of a farm growing 250 tons of tomatoes had received a form from the manpower office, which indicated that he might be directed away from this work. Another man, he said, had been directed away from growing tomatoes under contract to a carrying industry. The manpower officer, Air. C. G. S. Ellis, said it would be most undesirable to direct a man away from market gardening. He could not understand a man being directed to driving work, as there were more drivers available than could be placed. Men would not be directed from the land if the department could help it. The farmers affected should consult the manpower office. Saying that a lot of the criticism of the department iu relation to labour for farms had been unjustified, Mr. Ellis referred to the problem created by.men released from the Army who had refused to go to the farms to which they had been nominated. “Where the man is an unwilling work; er he is not of much use on a farm, said Colonel N. P. Adams. “If he is not a stayer, what can the National Service Department or ourselves do?” “Official browbeating of the men will get us nowhere,” added Mr. Ellis, “but this is a problem that must be tackled. ’