UNEMPLOYMENT.

Wairarapa Age, 28 February 1927, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT.

(To the Editor).

Sir,—l notice that at a meeting of the Provincial Executive of the Farmer# ’ Union yesterday, Mr. Nevins is reported as stating that the fanners of New Zealand at present employ thirty thousand leas hands than they did in 1913, and I do net believe Mr. Nevins at all exagerated the position. Doubtless (as Mr. Nevins put it) that fact has a great deal to do with the lack of employment. Now, Mr. Editor, there there must be some very powerful tector that has brought about this . state of affairs, and to my mind the reasMi is fairly obvious, and I do not hesitate to state as a practical farmer, tmtt the "high rate of wages now being demanded is the real reason why farmers cannot and will not expend money on improvements as freely as they did in 1913. Until wages are brought into line with the reduced value of farm produce, there is but small chance of relief to the labour market by the farming industry. Unfortunately, Mr. Editor, there is another aspect of this trouble, and one which I notice politicians (for reason best known to themselves) invariably fight shy of. However, it hits the farmer every time. The seeker for work takes a jaunt into the country, and failing to obtain employment at the rate of wages he has been taught to expect, drifts back to the towns. Finding the labour market glutted there, he is soon in a parlous position, and as very soon the number of these idle men increases, there is a cry about distress. Pressure is then brought on the Governnfl?nt and local bodies to do something for these men. Work is then found to be paid for out of borrowed money >(iarely remunerative, I am afraid) and the net result is: the farmer in the long run is saddled with the whole •cost, and the long-suffering farmer is still poorer. Apologising for trespassing on your valuable space,—l am, etc.,

MURRAY I. H. JACKSON Masterton, February 25.