FARM LABOUR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20069, 16 October 1939, Page 11

FARM LABOUR

NOVEL TARANAKI PLAN GANGS OF TOWNSPEOPLE FREE WEEK-END SERVICE The provision of sufficient farm labour to achieve the desired increase in production, particularly during the harvest season, is causing concern in many parts of Taranaki. Various courses of action have resulted in an endeavour to meet the position. Perhaps the most novel is that taken at Inglewood, where a meeting of townspeople framed plans to help farmers in the Inglewood County. An endeavour will be made to organise week-end gangs of townspeople, who, it was believed, would not require any payment for the unskilled labour they would supply during the harvest. It was suggested that voluntary workers be organised on a roster and that their work might come within the scope of the national reserve. The employees of the Inglewood and Waimate West County Councils are to give assistance to farmers if necessary, according to decisions reached by the councils authorising the engineers to release men for the purpose. The Inglewood council decided to maintain roads with a skeleton staff, making all other men available, and agreed that a committee would deal with applications from farmers and decide priority where necessary. The Patea County Council viewed seriously the acute shortage of labour for farm work, not only for developmental work, but also for general farm purposes. The Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, is to be asked to consider seriously the curtailment of relief schemes accordingly with a view to making labour available so that an immediate increase in production work should not be accepted for military service in the meantime.