LABOUR ON FARMS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20994, 22 December 1939, Page 7

LABOUR ON FARMS

4B SCHEME UNSOUND OTAGO FARMERS’ OPINION (By Telegraph.—Press Association) DUNEDIN, Thursday The No. 4B scheme, by which men are subsidised by the Government for farm development work, was the subject of considerable discussion at the monthly meeting to-day of the Otago Provincial Council of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. A motion advocating modification of the scheme with the aim of enabling farmers to take full advantage of it was heavily defeated. The meeting carried the following motion: “While we recognise that the 4B scheme is of assistance to some farmers in enabling them to get some useful work done that would otherwise be neglected, as a permanent policy it is utterly unsound, and if it should be developed and extended it will ultimately impose a crushing burden on the exporting industries, some sections of which are at present perhaps reasonably sound.”

Discussion began after the Dunedin placement officer, Mr T. A. White, had explained the No. 4F scheme, designed to advance the training of farm labourers.

“Many farmers are doing what they and their families can do and leaving the rest undone,” one member said. “Farm labourers cannot earn the money that the farmer has to pay them. Farmers are finding experienced labour expensive enough, and they cannot consider inexperienced labour. It is not generally appreciated that inexperienced labour can do great damage to teams and implements."