LABOUR FOR FARMS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 193, 13 May 1944, Page 8

LABOUR FOR FARMS

No Releases From Middle East Forces MEN FROM PACIFIC AREA “The present plans do not provide, for the return of any men from the Middle East, and no action can be taken on ai> plications by farmers for the release of previotls employees from the Middle East forces,” said the Minister of Industrial Manpower, Mr. McLagan, when referring yesterday to the return of,men for a period from the Pacific for increased food production. “Tlie purpose of the present farmlabour survey is to ascertain as quickly as 110881816 those farmers who are in' need of farm labour for the forthcoming season, so that my department may be in a position to regulate the return of suitable men from the Pacific to meet the demands of the farming industry,” said the Minister. He added that a fairiy liberal estimate had been made of the number of additional farm employees required to meet the extra demands consequent on the plans for increased primary production, and he was confident that sufficient labour of a suitable type would be available from the men returning from the Pacific. As far as practicable, experienced farm workers would be placed on the farms from which they came, but; it might be necessary, on account of the priority to be given to dairy farm production, to divert to dairy farm work some men with general farming experience who, previous to their joining the forces, were working on sheep farms. It was also possible that some of the men might not desire to return to their previous employer. , .... The Minister said that another factor that had to be taken into consideration was that no guarantee could be given as to when any particular man could be made available. Some individual men coming back for farm work could not be made immediately available because of military considerations. The _ overall plans, however, provided for priority to tie given as far as possible to the return of experienced men.