REAL HARDSHIP (?)

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1916, Page 7

REAL HARDSHIP (?)

To the Editor. Sir,—ln yours of the sth it is mentioned in a paragraph, copied from the Dominion, that some farmers are suffering real hardship on account of the shortage of labor, and 'by way of emphasising it mention is made of a wealthy farmer who actualy has to milk "two" cows all by himself in order to supply lik own household with milk! What with mentioning eases like the one quoted and calling it a case of hardship and the way the wealthy sheepfarmers in some parts of the country are cavilling" over the payment of an extra half-crown per hundred for the shearing of their sheep when they a>re receiving over twice as much for their wool as they did a few years back, one is apt to wonder how our wealthy sheepfarmers will act when the war is over if the labor market becomes glutted, and men disabled and unfitted for work call on them for a feed and shake-down. If those who object to pay an increase on the current shearing rates as paid before the war, if they are prepared to sell their clips to the Government at pre-war prices and allow all profits made bv the Government on tlw> sale of their wool go to provide for the dependants of those who have sacrificed their lives in their country's cause, and thereby protecting the interests of the niggardly squatter who is grudging to pay a fair vrice. foi his shearing, they will find the shearers patriotic enough to shear their sheep at pre-war rates. When a journalist who lus been interviewing farmers quotes it as a case of hardship because a gentleman farmer has two cows to milk for his own private use, and farmers meet and pass resolutions not to pay over 22s Od per hundred for shearing, with wool quoted at Is Sd per lb at Home and selling at abnormal urices, it i.j almost enough to make one wish that those farmers had to face a similar experience to that of many farmers in France and Belgium. The whole amount that the sheep-owners are cavilling about means that a man owning 800 sheep, if he acquiesced in the shearers' demands, his whole shearing would cost him one pound more. • Tn the face of that, his wool is netting him about 75 per cent, more than it did when his sheanng was costing him '2os per hundred. I believe if the Arbitration Courts in giving awards as to wages to be paid in industries such as dairying and woolgrowing were to fix their .iward on a sliding basis, to lie governed by the current prices of those products, it would be more satisfactory, as I have received 20s per hundred for shearing when wool was only .realising 3d per lb at Home, and is now bringing over six times as much, and yet 25s per hundred is considered too much to pay with the

cost of living increased by over 2~> per cent, for the worker. —I am, etc., it A. HUNT. Inanga, Stratford, Oct. 7. EGMONT COUNTY TENDERS. To the Editor. Sir, —T sec tliat tlu/ Egmont, County Council bus called tenders for contracts in different parts of the count;, but I notice the councillors have omitted the Auroa. road from those tenders. I consider it is quite time they had some boulders carted out 011 tlve Awatuna road, because there has never been one yard, let ulone a contract let for the, Auroa road since Mr. Opie left the Council. As we have to pay l%d in the pound for rates on a load like this, the present neglect is what one might call "the limit." —I an*, etc., ROCKY AUROA ROAD. Awatuna, Oct. 9.