The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1917. THE LABOUR QUESTION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 9 March 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1917. THE LABOUR QUESTION.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

In this young country, where people almost to a man have co live by the sweat of their brow, and in which to keep the national machinery moving it is necessax-y to prosecute the raising of primary products year by year, increasing ih e annual crop by an ever growing aggregate of employed labour, it is .obvious that the labour question must always be one with which our Government will constantly have to concent itself. Just now it is very difficult indeed to obtain labour, and it seems regrettable that the old haphazard methods of chance in getting workmen, or of workmen getting work, should continue. In New Zealand there may not be the same degree of shortage as in England, but there is quite sufficient to warrant the inauguration of some system whereby men available could more readily reach employment that is awaiting them. The wanted advertisement in the employment columns of big newspapers has become almost valueless, simply because men wanting work are fewer. To get the pre-war reply to one such advertisement it would now De necessary to utilise every city daily in the country. To keep up the volume of production it is essential .hat labour should be available. We are no party to the cry that there are not men enough left to do the work; we believe there are axxxple to carry on, with a good many that can yet be spared to go and help 10 get this war over as quickly as possible, but they are scattered. It seems that some system should be instituted by which a closer connection might be brouo-ht about between farmers and men who work on farms, and of men who are anxious for employment on farms. The national cow must be kept from running dry, or away goes our prosperity; away slides the time when highest Prices are forthcoming f or what can be produced, the golden opportunity that must be grasped. Newspaper paragraphs frequently draw attention to shortage of labour, but it is a fact

that it is sometimes reported that in ] certain localities men are wanting 1 work. We do not suggest how it is to be done, dr just what machinery* should be brought into being to accomplish it, but while men and work are waiting for each other and, while it is to the country’s greatest advantage that they should be brougm. together there should be some effort to I institute' something better and more effectual than the old haphazard, ineffectual and wasteful methods, largely composed of chance. Factories are placed similarly with our farms in the labour difficulty; there may be'men in Southland or Otago that are urgently needed in Wellington and Auckland; workers read the advertisements, but the journey from Southland to Auckland is too much in the ;natur e of a gamble. We want some practical scheme whereby men and the work they want can be brought together so that available labour can be utilised to the fullest extent. A council of employers, representing a million manufacturers, in England, has 'discovered a long suppressed affinity between employer and employed thfd had been lost sight of. The president of this council stated at a meeting that not long ago manufacturers were inclined to look upon trade union leaders as natural enemies, hut a. remarkable change has set in. Aggressive Socialism had been dropped by most labour leaders, while employers had learned to recognise the truth in the contentions of labour leaders which practically amounted to a policy of live-and-let-live. One of the chief spokesmen for labour in Britain is urging that the time is ripe for a better understanding between capital and labour, whereas the manufacturers* (adoption of a minimum wage, and the inculcation of a system of profit-shar-ing, shows a practical desire for a better understanding with their emThe president said this association, representing the employers of Britain, was prepared to dis-

cuss measures for securing just and generous terms for the remuneration of their employees. A better understanding between all parties to production in a country like this would result in proportionate increase in our exports, and diminution in imports. Then why cannot some organisation be set in motion to bring about this better understanding? We cling to our old methods regarding employment just as tenaciously as some countries still hang to the old wooden plough drawn by oxen for tilling the land. It must be obvious to the whole employing class how wasteful the old methods are and they will realise that the greater the facilities there are for bringing farmer and man together the more widespread and extensive cultivation will be and more gratifying the resultant profits.