SERIOUS PROBLEM
ACUTE SHORTAGE OF FARM LABOUR
ON ACCOUNT OF MILITARY CALLS. DESIRE FOR CLEAR LEAD FROM GOVERNMENT. “The position concerning farm labour is becoming alarmingly serious. The Government, on the one hand, has urged the crying need for increased production and yet on the other hand is taking men off the farm for military training. Which' is the more important? A direct statement by the Government will clear away the haziness which surrounds the whole position,” observed Mr R. W. Kebbell, chairman of the Alfredton More Production • Committee and deputy-chairman of the Wairarapa Production Council, in a statement to a "Times-Age” representative. The position applied to the whole farming community, Mr Kebbell added. If the Government considered that military training was of paramount importance, then farmers would have to be prepared to walk off their farms and go into camp. If the Government considered increased production the more important it should say so and clear up the position. "In my own experience I find that I cannot get men to replace those called up,” Mr Kebbell stated. “One of my men is shortly to be called x up for the Air Force and the other " goes into a Territorial camp in the near future I am left to farm 4,000 acres." He stressed the point that his was not an isolated case. “I again repeat that what the farming community want is a statement from the Government directing whether increased production is to be the goal aimed at or not,” added Mr Kebbell.
In commenting on the problem of farm labour—a problem in view of the fact that over 1,000 men have left the district for military service—Messrs J. L. Woods (Social Security Registrar) and J. Reid (State Placement Officer) pointed out in a joint statement that farmers had the right to appeal to the local Man Power Committee to have men exempted until replacements were available. The actual position was. the officials stated, that farmers did not prefer employing married labour. There was a keen demand for boys and youths, however. The Government had a subsidised scheme for training men for farm work and had made available suitable mobile accommodation for housing married men. Although no figures could be supplied without the Minister’s approval married labour was available in the district. The position concerned single men eligible for military service.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19401113.2.32
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1940, Page 4
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392SERIOUS PROBLEM Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1940, Page 4
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