FARM LABOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9139, 15 July 1908, Page 4

FARM LABOUR.

The farm labour difficulty appears to be as acute as ever, and numerous are the complaints,-from settlers in different parts of the Dominion The present state of affairs is most undesirable for the welfare of the agricultural industry that is the backbone of the country. A year or two of the labour difficulty has a very discouraging effect on the energy of the farmer, who wishes to show enterprise in farming his lan 1 in the best possible way. Agriculturists are beginning to genuinely feel the pinch of the scarcity of labour, and it is well-known thatsome farmers have been practically ] forced to relinquish dairy farmii'g I which would have paid them be«t, in favour of sheep-farming, simply because the labour problem is more easily grappled With in the case < f the latter industry. On the oth c hand the trouble is having one good effect in that it is giving a wonderful impetus to mechanics and men of brains to introduce hbour-javini* machinery into the country. The amount of machinery of this description that ia being placed on the market at the present time is leally marvellous, and that it does in a measure alleviate the labour trouble is evidenced by the keen demand existing for modern machinery. The milking machine, which is now an acknowledged success, is purely the outcome of the labour difficulty. When these machines come into general use will revolutionise dairying, because their installation will exempt farmers' from a long series of labour worries The same applies to other branches of labour where machinery is replacing manual labour. There is one aspect of the question, however, that cannot be denied, viz., that yuung men who would naturally take to farming for their occupation, are attracted by the higher wages ruling in the cities. They forget that tne high cost of living in towns more than counter-balances the high wages they are receiving, and under this de ludon they are content to keep away from the congenial occupations of country life. '•