FARMERS' PROBLEMS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 22 December 1916, Page 4

FARMERS' PROBLEMS

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Reports of shortage of labour continue to come from the country districts, and it appears that the trouble is being accentuated by the operation of the ballot. The reservists selection as recruits for the Expeditionary Forces include many hundreds of farmers, farmers' sons, and farm workers, and though periods of exemption may be allowed i n cases of particular hardship, most of the fit men will have to get into camp. "The pinch is being felt even more severely than the farmers generally admit," sale a YVairarapa man last week. "The work on many farms is being carried on with extreme difficulty, and I know of me n who are hard at it fourteen and sixteen hours a day in the effort to keep things going. Their difficulties will increase as time goes on." A settler on the East Coast mentions in a letter that his "last ewe lamb," in the form of his last skilled hand, has been enlisted compulsorily. "I know an appeal will not be sustained," he writes, "but on these backcountry stations it is absolutely necessary to have men who are physically sound and lit. After forty years a man does not seem to stand the eternal horse-work. Every sound, fit man we had is enlisted, and from June until now we have had no shepherd on the place. There is a lad here who is just of age, and who drives the bullock team, runs the engine, etc. He and I have had to do the whole sheep w r ork of the station, and now he is to go. "On another very large station in this district there are only three shepherds, and on another two shepherds. One large place has the manager and a cowman. Another has a shepherd (who was forbidden by the doctors to work at all), and the young son of the owner. The only other man on my place are a gardener, who is a Swiss, a cook, who is a swede, and a Russian Pole. These men are all well over military age. We are not in any way 'grousin'' but lam mentioning the facts in order to give you an idea of what is actually happening in these out-districts." —"Auckland Btar."