"HOMES IN THE HILL COUNTRY"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 22

"HOMES IN THE HILL COUNTRY"

Sir,-I .was very interested. in Miss Northcroft’s article "Homes in the Hill Country." I have lived in hill country now for over 12 years. My own beginnings were a country area in Great Britain among very different conditions, where the "village" was the focus of life for many miles round. We hear much talk of "shortages." The one ‘basic shortage in the hill country is shortage of labour. In a. recent Brains Trust broadcast it was stated that the New Zealand farm worker produces five times as much in value as does ‘his opposite numbér in Britain. This sounds a creditable achievement, and when one considers the work done by one man on hill country, almost a credible one. ‘When one _ considers further, however, that besides actual farm and stock work he is constantly obliged to turn his hand to all sorts of work which, properly speaking, is not part of his job, one wonders how it can be done at all. These extra jobs are, as often as not, rushed through, and are seldom done efficiently owing to lack of training. One wofhders whether our high trate of production per man is such an asset after all and whether it is not achieved thrdugh overtaxing our available manpower and _ through the gradual depreciation of farm land and farm buildings. In our district there are herds of from 30 to 79 cows, and the land rises to limestone hills suitable for sheep farming. There is a Post, Office-Store and the local hall is close by and the school is not far away. A County Council house has been built recently to accommodate a froadman. This seems a promising start. What is needed now is several more houses, possibly four. Two houses could be occupied by casual workers, men who would help with the work on the surrounding farms. Fencers would be useful (for many farmers are not efficient fencers), also shearers. Men who could combine a knowledge of these jobs and turn a hand to other work in season, would have as much work as they cared to do all the year round. Another house could be the home of a carpenter, who could repair farm buildings. This man would do many of the jobs which the farmer now does himself and does badly, owing to lack of technical training. Such workers would be housed in uncrowded conditions and their children would grow up in more healthy surroundings than they would in town. Also there should be’ a house for a trained nurse.

"HILL COUNTRY"

(Te Kauri, Waikato).

(This letter has been abridged.--Ed.)