HOP-PICKING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1914, Page 4

HOP-PICKING IN NEW ZEALAND.

According to the New Zealand Times hop-picking a new phase of activity for the Labour Department, is to receive attention this year. It is anticipated that nearly four hundred people will leave Wellington toward sthe end of the present week for Nelson. Picking will start on March 2nd, and a party will leave II eliingtou on Saturday afternoon, and a further party of about three hundred women and girls on Sunday. One of the leading gowers from the M/jtueka and liiwaka districts is at present in Wellington engaging a number of hands. Among many people hop-picking is regarded quite in the light of a holiday, and large numbers' undertake the work purely for health reasons. The workers arc paid 2VI per bushel for the hops picked, and passages at reduced rates are provided for those going to Motueka. The employer finds the tents, and the workers provide their own cooking utensils and blankets. Fruit and vegetables, which are plentiful iir the district, are sometimes provided by the growers. Some of the principal growers have approached the Labour Department with a view to the department undertaking in future the task of providing the workers eac i season. It is suggested that the department should so organise the work that the women’s branch of the Wellington office will arrange the imppicking parties. ’The department has promised to send Miss Bremner -o inspect the work in order to become acquainted with the conditions.