£3 AS A YEAR'S PAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10289, 26 May 1919, Page 2

£3 AS A YEAR'S PAY

THE LOT OF THE POLISH LAND

WORKJittt.

About 15,000 agricultural labourers are on same m JUe couuwy round Lubtm, and uieir nunaoexs are nkeiy to increase, since it ia possible that the movement will spread to other parts country (states a correspondent, of a London paper of March 25th). v The striHo is neither surprising nor regrettable. It is tho cause which is 'lepioraole. It baa been caused by the inability of the farm hands to live on i<he pittance paid by tho landowners, and by their determination to tolerate no longer the miserable conditions of life imposed upon them by their employer*. Before the war labourers were paid a yearly wage of 30 roubles (£3) in the Lublin district. Under pressure, the late Government of Mr Moraozow ski raised it to 300 marks, eual at the present time tt less than £6. The labourer receives from the landowner a home, consisting of one room, which the family may have to share with another family, a certain quantity of corn and fuel, and a plot of ground for the growing oj potatoes. A. peasant in the district of Lovza, where conditions are worse than in Lublin, told me: "Before the war we .could manage, because then a pair of boots for a man cost four roubles and for a woman two roubles." This man and bis family shared a room with two other families, and each of the three contains Ero children. "The labourer in our parts is now getting 100 marks. How can he live when boots cost 500?"

He mentioned that the landowner pastured a cow; that tho fuel to warm tho hbme consisted of fallons branches and brushwood, which the children collected in the forest. "We oat meat on Easter Day, not always at Christmas." Labourers in the Lublin district state that tho majority of tho landowners are not paying the rate of wages imposed by the Moraczewsky Government. The strikers demand 600 marks yearly, n larger supply of corn, a larger plot of potatoos, and, above all, the abolition of the custom requiring each labourer to provide an assistant, whom the labourer is usually obliged to pay morn than the amount allowed for this purby the landowner. Tho correspondent adds :—I have in my possession the demands of Lomza farm hands, given me by the labourer already monMoned. It is one of the most touching documents I have ever read, a cry from the tillers of the enrtli not only for hotter material conditions of life, but for enlightenment and for the things of the spirit. v Besides asking 600 marks yearly, these labourers demand that the land owner shall provide n school for thoir children when one does not exist, asl? for two dnys' holidnv pvpry rpinrfcer to arrange their private nffairs,. and stipulate that no vrork shall bo required of them on Sundays or festivals of tho church except the work of fcwlinc horses, "in order that we mny attend our religious duties." It is, indped. n document which, to employ the phrase of Balzao, ii pnrfumei do prieres ennmnetrea.

Tho landowners declare that it Is impossible to meet the labourers' demands and at tlio same time make a profit. In reply to whioh tho labourers say: "Very well. Hand lis ovnr the fnrma: wo are prepared to work them and give vnn good rent," A remedy will be applied. PotyHlere is a democratic Par-