SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION FOR COUNTRY LABORERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1764, 18 August 1884, Page 2

SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION FOR COUNTRY LABORERS.

(From Rough Jottings on Tasmanian Legislation by P. J. Matthews.) In all the Australian Colonies, New Zealand, and Tasmania, the country laborer is forced to sleep in a style more suitable for a dog than a human being. Farmers and squatters, one and all, appear to have come to the conclusion that a man can lie anywhere and anyhow. When an employee is engaged he is generally shown some dilapidated old dirty hut or out-house and told that ho oan make his bed '. there—bed or bedding of any sort is not supplied. Some farmers do not \ even think it necessary to inform the i laborer where he is to take his repose • he may sleep under a gum tree, or at the side of the straw stack, it is all a matter of indifference; as to think of allowing a hired man to rest under the same roof with themselves is altogether out of the question, If he had I the temerity to ask for a tin dish to ' wash his face in, or a towel wherewith • to dry himself, he would be looked < upon either as an impudent fellow or a ' lunatic, and yet those farmers deduct more from the laborer's wages, on account of having to board him than a respectable lodging-house keeper in ' town would charge a workman for much better food, and proper sleeping accommodation, The average, wa«es ' for country hands in Tasmania is, at ' the very outside, fifteen shillings per week, and taking the average wages of • town laborers at thirty six shillings per week, we find that the farmer j receives twenty-one shillings per week for boarding the farm servant—in * other words if he did." not board his 1 laborer he would have to pay him at r least that amount more wages. In all large cities and towns in the 1' Australian Colonies there are appointed * inspectors of common lodging houses l Tf it w found necessary to have officials 1 to look after the proper housing of working men in towns, how much more is it required in the country] The town laborer is not forced to take up ? bis residence in any particular house; ll if he is dissatisfied with the accommo- F dation of one establishment he has l others to choose from—there is plenty of competition in that line of business; " but the country hand is compelled to ° put up with whatever accommodation ' his employer may be pleased to give l him. Is it to be wondered at that we seo I strong healthy men remaining idle in ti town for weeks, and sometimes for * months, waiting in expectation of some I petty job turning up, sooner than go ll

back to the bush and tho only job they really understand? In the republic of the United States, and the British colonies of Horth America, the hired man is treated as a member of the farmer's family: he has as comfortable a room to sleep in as a traveller could'obtain at the village hotel; his washing is done for him, he has newspapers and books to read at night if he feels so inclined—in fact he is treated as a respectable member of society. The publichouse there is not the poor man's only haven of rest, but in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, the country hand is treated as if he was a veritable vagabond. How long will the Legislature allow such a large body of our most useful and industrious countrymen to be used in such a cruel and barbarous manner 1