FARMERS AND THEIR WORKMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2060, 11 December 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

FARMERS AND THEIR WORKMEN.

EMPLOYEES BEFORE THE CONCILIATION COURT. THE CASE FOR THE WORKMEN. Tho Canterbury Conciliation Board sat in Christchurch ou November o to hoar tho matters in disputo boshoplierds, £ 12s Cd and found, Union and tlieir employers. Tilio Board comprised Messrs AY. Minson (chairman), H. Broadliead, G. Sheat, G. AATiiting, and H. R. Rusbridge, Messrs J. Thorn, E. Kennedy and J. Smith represented tho Farm Laborers’ Union, Messrs D. Jones and R. Evans, the Farmers’ Union, , and Mr H. D. .Acliland the Sheepowners’ Association.

In opening tlio business, —r Minson explained that the disputo had been referred to tlio Board by the Court, with tho decision that the Board had nothing moro to do than take a note of evidence and make a recommendation. The inquiry concerned tho largest and most important industry in tlio Dominion, and he lolt euro that the magnitude and importance of the question would command and receive tho most careful and dignified treatment. Tho immediate question was, in other words, tho relative value of tlio wages and labor of tlio agricultural industry; and it would thus /break entirely new ground in this, and indeed in many countrios.

Tho schedule of .tlio demands by tho Union was set out as follows Hours of Labour—Ploughmen, u a.m. to 8 p.m., breakfast 7 to / a.m.; dinner an hour and a half from leaving work till starting bade to work; work with horses to stop at 5 p.m., after which men were not to groom horses. Day laborers, eight hours and a half for five days, and four hours and a half on /Saturdays. General farm hands, nine hours per day. /Harvesters, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Olio hour for dinner, half an hour for lunch both heforo and after dinner. Married couples, husband same hours as ploughmen or harvesters, according to work; other 'work fortyeight hours per week. Rates of wages:—'Head ploughman or timekeeper, £1 10s per week; ploughmen on level country, £1 7s 6d for four-horse-team, and £1 5s for tlireeliorso team, 2s 6d extra for every additional horse; swamp ploughing with six horses, £1 15s per week. General farm hands, £1 7s 6d per week. Day laborers, 7s 6d per day; casuals, Is per hour; drainers, Is per hour; if in water, Is 3d per hour, gum-boots supplied by employers. 'Harvest wages —Mon working horses, £2 15s, with hoard and lodging;. stocking and forking, £2 15s; or Is 3d per hour with hoard and lodging; stacking, £3 per week, or Is Cd per hour and found; stacker’s assistant. Is per hour and found; daymen, Is per hour, with board at the rate of 10s per week where necessary. Married couples, where both have-to work: —Man,- £1 7s 6d; wife (as cook), 15s per .week for four men, and 2s per week for eabli man over -four ; if required to hake, £1 per week; house and coal and firewood free; horse and trap to be allowed-to be kept at not more than Is per week. If /man lias to harvest, wages to bo those of harvester. Shepherds:—Head shepherds on plains or downs, if married, £1 12s 6d, on back or mountainous country ,if married,- £1 15s, house, fuel, rations, horses and feed for dogs free. Single men same, with board and lodgings instead 'of house/ 1 Undershepherds, £1 12s 6d and found; if single, or with liouso if married; casual employees £1 15, and all found ; mustering on Sundays, Is per hour. Musterers and packers in back country, £3 per week and 10s extra for Sundays, and found. Day musterers, 11s per day,, with one day’s pay for coming from last job and 5s expenses. Threshers, same wages and " conditions as harvesters. Holidays :—Now Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, day of local sports, Labor Day, King’s Birthday, Christmas Day,'-' Boxing .Day, one week each in November and May, all at full, pay,, and a half-holiday on Saturday except in harvest time. Overtime: —Day laborers Is per hour, harvesters-Is 3d per hour for all time before 7 .a.m. or after 7 p.m. Boys to bo paid not less than 17s 6d per week, with increases of 2s 6d every six months to the full wages; no boy under sixteen to take charge of team of more than two horses; and no boy to work before or after hours fixed for other farm workers. All sleeping accommodation to'be properly, ventilated and sanitary, /and each individual to have the same space as allotted under the Shearers’ Act, 1898.-The dining-room to he separate from - the sleepingroom ; each worker to • have board, soap and candles allowed, and the choice of baker’s bread when practicable, aiul ■to be allowed os a week extra if they have to cook for themselves. Preference to he given to unionists.. : No work covered by these conditions to be let by contract. Patrick F. Darcy stated that he ■worked for two years about Ashburton as ploughman and at threshing. He worked four horses as ploughman jfor 22s 6d a week, lived in a tent, cooked his own food and drove the .horses for eight hours, from eight to jfive. That meant starting work with the horses at 5 a.m. and stopping as 10 p.m. The suggestion that plougli,meu should work from 6 a.m. to 8 /p.m. was perfectly Workable, and ; would not ruin any farmers. Some ; farmers gave a lialf-lioliday, but ; others did not, although it was quite ; workable. A man without a holiday had uo time to himself on Sunday if . lie had to attend to his horses and do his .washing. Tlie wages were quite fair as demanded. His' food and accommodation probably cost tbo farmer 10s a week at the outside. His work on threshing mills was the most wretched he had ever done. Ho was paid 10s per thousand for oats and 12s for wheat. He had worked all night at times; the work was very heavy. The demand for Is 3d per hour with fair accommodation was a perfectly fair rate, with ; .overtime after ten hours’ work.. That would he considered fair in.any other trade, and threshing was extremely lucrative. He had known one place where four men and two boys had to live together in a fairly good hut, and it was very objectionable that they should have to live together. AA’here •lie had worked as ploughman the accommodation was very wretched; thero was no fireplace, and tho wall had many wind-admitting holes. He considered that as a man had no recreation all the year round, he was entitled to a- fortnight on full pay.

■ To Mr Jones: It took him throo hours to got tlio horses in, groom them, feed them and get his breakfast. Ho had 'to find them in a paddock of 150 acres, with grass up to his knees, wot with dew. At night ho had to unharness, groom and feed tho horses. It was not liis experience that horses with plenty of grass would only eat one feed in tho daytime. On days too wet to plough he was sout out to mend fences; or if it was too wet altogether ho had to do indoor work with grass seed. Ho never had a clear day. His experience as a ploughman in Canterbury only covered nine or ton weeks, but lie had had a very long experience as a farmer in Arictoria. Ho was not successful thero, and recognised now that that was bocauso tho rents were too high to enable good wages to I o paid. Olio pound a week was good wages, and tlio hours were much the samo as hero. Ho was not aware that there was a threshing machine award in Otago, fixing tho wages at 91d an hour. That used to bo she rato of pay. Ho did not know that there was a shortage of good farm hands ill Canterbury. Food.cost 14s 6d per week when ho was threshing, and it was wretched food. Ho had known good food supplied cheaper, ■it generally was cheaper than had food. He did not think that there was any groat haste necessary in threshing; there was certainly ioneed for men to work all night. He knew that ono of tho most successful farmers in Canterbury never allowed his moil to work after dark, John A. M’Douald stated that J.o was a ploughman, and gave evidence in support of. tho contentions of the Union. Ho had worked his hor.ses for eight hours. Ho had started at £7O a year, with a house, and ’'id his pay increased to £BO. Frank Dale said that he had been for twelve years in the Springston district, mostly as a day-laborer. Ho did eight hours’ work a day, with. a good deal of broken time occasionally. His average wage was about 30s a week for hard manual labor. He had: worked at threshing'on the contract system, at. twelve to fourteen hours a day, and received the equivalent of 42s a week. Ho disapproved of. the contract system. He did, not think the half-holiday idea was in any way unworkable; at present tlie farm hands had practically no recreation. The wages asked lor were quite reasonable, considering that tho price of things had advanced all round.

Richard B. Hill, a day laborer working at Dunsandel, said that he was paid 6s a day, and had at one place received 7s. His average wages, counting broken time, were 30s a week, and he had a struggle to keep his family well. The wages asked for were not exorbitant, or more than the farmers could afford.

Edward Kennedy said that ho had for seven years worked in Canterbury in seven places; in.oiie for four years. In that place he had worked from four to six horses, starting at 5.30 a.m., and stopping at 9 ,p.m. In wot weather ho had to do mending and clean harness. On wet days he was generally in and out, half wet and unable to get dry. IQ only one place that did not occur. As a ploughman he had been asked (o milk, but he had refused. He had ploughed swamp. Six to eight horses had to be used, and the man’s life was in danger every day. The plough kicked about so much that one could not stay near it, and had to walk well behind; the driver was generally wet through and coated with mud. It had given him rheumatism ten years ago, and he still had it. It was most laborious, severe work, and for it he got 32s 6d i>er week. The wage of 35s and 2s 6d- extra- for ev.eryliorse over six, as a Shod for by the Union, was not done enough, He had seen such ploughing done by \wo men, ono to drive the horses, and one to look after tho plough and each 'getmoro wages than 355, and the work was worth it. As to accommodation, ho had seen six men sleeping in one wharo 14ft by 10ft; another ou the samo farm was too short for a tall man to lie down in, and too small for two to dress in at once. (To Be Continued.)