BOY LABOUR ON FARMS.

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 7, 20 March 1911, Page 19

BOY LABOUR ON FARMS.

Dear "Worker," —Let mc draw your readers' attention to a very astonishing state of affairs—the importatio i of boysi to alleviarte the so-called scarcity of farm labourers. This, while men are prepared to work all hours and all days, Sundays included, prepared to sleep in shanties and tents through the roughest weather! Is it not high time the farm labourer realised that he and not the non-working farmer is the back bone of the country? If ihe realised this our present Government would not dare to import boy faoraa workers to compete with them. But the Government knows full well said workers are sound asleep or they would not play with tlhe Accommodation Act as they have and are doing. Why was such. Act ever passed if it was knoiwn thaifc it was unneceiSsairy ? Or if it is necessary why is it not enforced? Yet this Act went through: the House witih hardly a word from either side, which goes to show thaoo everyone was satisfied that there was ample room for said reform. In spite of this said measure to-day is all "but a deaid letter on the statute book, and men are sleeping in sheds little more tihaax dog houses in a numiber of

cases. In fact there is scarcely one farmer who complies with the requirements of the Act. This itself is a proof that workers are not at a premium. If they were they could demand that the Accommodation Act be complied with. Apart from the question of scarcity of men labour on farms, is the treatment, of our New Zealand boys so> exemplary that we slhould bring stranger boys out to participate in the good conditions ? What of boys Avorking on farms a-t the present? Ihe hours range from daylight to dark and in most oases long alter dark. Boys are roused out ax, five in the morning to mix grass seed, drag water-race®, etc., etc., before breakfast- Tlhey harve to ride to the township, probably a, few miles away, for the mail at about seven in the evening, before they can call the remainder of the day their own—if there be any remainder left —all for ten shillings a week! I know of a case where a youth getsi fifteen shillings a week working ia five-horse team and no midday meal 'hour I I know a case where an employer told nis, worker h& would teach, him to brand sheep, sew up wool bales, and fleece pick, if he would take ten schillings a week instead of twelve. Anybody who lias been in a. woolshed. at all knows that all this can be learnt by the most dilatory in a, few minutes and with one day s practice same would be an expert. I could fill a page describing bad conditions meted out to native-born lads, with a home to go to. If these bear with such conditions m order to keep their jobs wihat will it be with boys who are tliousa<n.ds of miles away from home and in addition are bound for a stated number of years ? —I am, etc., H. L. WASHEfIEt.