FARM LABOUR SCARCITY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 67, 11 December 1937, Page 8

FARM LABOUR SCARCITY

-Pr*»» AfsociaUon.J

N.Z. Union Protests to Government

(Bs Telegraph-

WELLINGTON La?t Night. At a meeting of the Domiuion executive of the New Zealand Farmers1 Union, it was decided to ask the Government that the sustenance regulations and their administration be tightened up, so that no sustenance would be paid to men capable of performing labour and refusing to undertake work when it was offered them. It was pointed out that .during the present wcek of farming operationa, there had been a real shortage of labour, and it was felt that the position was rather absurd when able-bodied men were receiving sustenance, and farmers and others were called on for taxation to provide this money when they badly needed assistance. Instances were given of men refusing to accept work that they were quite capable of performing, preferring to accept sustenance. The' executive unanimously passed the following remit; "That objection be lodged to mortgagors having to increase their mortgages by 2 per cent. when transferred to the State Mortgage Corporation, in order to obtain the corporation rate of interest, and to the contribution of 2 per cent. in addition to the mortgage for new mortgages. n It was stated, now the State was solely responsible for bonds, that there was no need for additipnal security, which really lepresented an unacknowledged capital contribution of 2 per cent! of the loan.