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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 March 1914, Page 4

THJE COST OF RURAL LABOR. Small batches of immigrant lads, under contract to engage in farm work, are periodically arriving in the Dominion, and from the manner in which they are absorbed it is evident that the system of assisting such workers to come here can be continued indefinitely without causing any glut in the labor market or leading to a reduction of laborers' wages. In spite of these facts, however, the trade union organisations, and even some Liberal newspapers, are raising their voices against the policy and declaring that it will have ruinous results. Attempts are being made also to inflame country workers and make them believe that they have u grievance in the matter; but these attempts are traceable to the. machinations of "Red" Fcderationsists, who are animated by a malevolent design to injure the farmers by way of revenge for itlie services given by the latter as special constables during the late strike. To counteract these tactics, it is well to remind country workers of the baneful results that will accrue to them if they are so misguided as to accept the leadership of the "Red Feds." A farmer, signing himself "North Island," has stated his own position very forcibly in a.letter to a southern journal. After pointing out the inability of a neighbor of his to get men to work at Is Cd an hour, he proceeds: "I havo some very rich land, more or less covered with flax. Last time it was cut it yielded some 800 tons, and I am told there is more to-day. I want to get the flax off and put a plough into the land with a view to thumping; crops of rape, etc. There are two flaxmillg within calling distance. One lias not started this year owing to labor troubles; tl»e other started, but closed down

for mmiiar reason*. So here 1 am. With the Ilax out of .tlic way I could fatten nt least a thousand sheep next season, to tho manifest advantage of myself, the man who <lid' the ploughing, the railways, the slaughtermen, the wharf laborers, and, of course, the llaxciiller. But if 1 want to get the land into a productive state 1 must pay men to cut the llax and burn it, thus losing £2OO in royalties, plus .the cost of destroying the ilax. Even at that 1 could not get men at ten shillings a day. I believe it would pay me to cut and burn that ilax, but I confess .that I have got mv back up, and when labor tells mo that I must pay labor to destroy Ilax which labor refuses to handle, or else allow land to lie idle on -which labor could earn good wages for years to come, I meet labor in the same spirit. And I write as ono who, in over thirty years, has had no dispute about wages, whoso record upon the basis of the length of time men stay with him is hard to beat, who, in one respect, can produce credentials which perhaps no other employer in Xew Zealand can equal, and who is simply asking to spend money on work which wouli create work all round, like ripples caused by throwing a stone into a pond. My own ease is but a trivial one, perhaps, but multiply one by the number of similar cases, and it is staggering to estimate the extont to which the productiveness of this country is being re- ! stricted by our sheer inability to spen'i money on labor." It is apparent from fads such as these that tliere is 110 need for laboring men to come into the towns, and that the trade unions would act more wisely if they adopted measures that would induce workers to go out into the country. where good wages can be earned, instead of pursuing the dog-in-the-man-ger policy of trying to prevent the farmers getting what labor they can. It is true that the youths who are being. imported do not get laboring men's wages; it would be unreasonable to expect this; but they are most liberally treated and have every reason to rejoice that an opportunity Ims been pivpn them to learn farm work, and they have the prospect before them of becoming successful farmer- in the course of a few years.