FRUIT AND LABOUR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 26, 23 October 1937, Page 8

FRUIT AND LABOUR

What H.B. Orchards Provide in Wages .. ADDRESS* TO ROTARY

Tke actual value1 which. the fruit industry is to Hawke's Bay from the point of view of employinent of labour and support for subsidiary industries TO8 stressed by Mr. N. J.- Adamson, Goverament orchard instructor, in k talk to Hastings Eotariang yesterday. Mr. Adamson covered .- less-known aspeets of the industry in an interest•ing talk. The Hastings Rotary Club •held a picnic in Mr. A. L. Baumgart's orchard in place of the usual luncheon in town. No form of farming employed more labour and supported more families than commercial fruit-growing, said Mr. Adamson. Though much of the work was of a seasonal nature, there was continuous employment for the orchiardist and his- permanent employees, with never a really slack season. In Hawke's Bay, he said, there; were roughly 300 orchards. large enough to self-supporting. An average orchard of 10 acres xequired the labour of the owner and a man, so that. most of them supported two families. He estimated that, besidcs the owners, there were employed in a wageeaxning capacity 180 to: 200 permanent hands ,including orchardists ' sons. Additional seasonal labour was engaged for fruit thinning fro'm about November 1 to midrDecember. Then an additional 100 adults might be engoged_ as well as assistance from the orchardist's own. family, After this tbcre was a reverting to, the p'osition wnen praetically only permanent hands were employed until the beginning of the main fruit-harvestihg period, which reached its climax about the beginning of March, when up to 100 additional persons were engaged. These, together with tho orchard owners, brought the total for the district up to 3000 persons. • Mr. Adamson estimated that the value of work done, in labour alone, in the district each season was £l5,0t)0 for pruning, £4000 to £5000 in spraying, £6000 in cultivatiou, £10,000! in fruit thinning, and £27,000 for harvest^ ing. The value of the materials nsed was also large. Fruit cases was the biggest itenfand the value of cases supplied in a season would reach £4J,000. When it was considered that most of this value was in labour, said Mr. Adamson, it would be realised what a stimulus fruit-growing was to other industries. Cartage of fruit from the orchard to the railway station was worth £4000, besides giving labour to transport workers and other subsidiary industries.