156 



ROYAL COMMIT AGR1C4TMTHK. 



1919.] 



MR. CABTEI.I. WREY. 



[Continued. 



baa obtained previously ? I should think very possibly 

 that is true. 



3911. And that would apply to the agricultural 

 labourer aa well aa to other sections of the community, 

 would it not? Not so much to him as to other 

 sections, I think. 



3912. Is it not true to say that you have had the 

 best of your labour taken during this time? Yea, I 

 think it is. 



3913. It would naturally follow, would it not, that 

 between the age of 18 and 45, those periods would 

 cover the best of the labour? Yes, 18 to 46 certainly. 



3914. The best years of their life? Yes or say 24 

 to 45. 



3015. And, therefore, naturally the labour would 

 have deteriorated by virtue of the fact of the best 

 having been taken? Yes, I think it would. 



3916. So therefore the deterioration might take 

 place without any reflection being cast upon the 

 labourers ? No ; because I have my wages books from 

 which I can see exactly what the men did four or five 

 years ngo and what they do now : men who have not 

 felt the strain of old age, men in their prime, and they 

 do not do the same amount of work as they used to. 



3917. And you do not think that any of these 

 results are in any wise due to war conditions? Not 

 in the agricultural labouring community. 



3918. The agricultural labourer has not felt the 

 strain the same as other sections have? No. 



3919. Would you suggest that he is more callous 

 than the other people ? He is less educated, and does 

 not read the papers. If he does read them, he does 

 not understand the military tactics. I do not think 

 the war has appealed to him as it has to the educated 



. classes. 



3920. Even from that standpoint you would not 

 blame him for not being educated ; he would be more 

 entitled to sympathy, would he not? Probably, yes. 



3921. That is rather a reflection on the rural con- 

 ditions of the past? Yes. 



3922. Is it a good thing to have labour uneducated? 

 Certainly not. 



3923. Do you think that you could develop the 

 standard of labour necessary unless the remuneration 

 is adequate? No, I do not. 



3924. That a man ought to be relieved as far as 

 possible of domestic difficulties if he is to have his 

 mind free for work during the day? Yes, I quite 

 agree with you. 



3925. He cannot be free from domestic difficulties 

 unless he has adequate remuneration for his labour ? 

 I agree. 



3926. Not merely adequate in the sense of payment 

 for labour; but adequate in the sense that it enables 

 him to meet his domestic obligations? Yes, I think 

 it ought to be. 



3927. You stated about men going off to a cricket 

 match. When was that? Last week. 



3928. At what time? About one o'clock, I should 

 think. 



3929. What day was it? Friday. 



3930. The men left their work on a Friday? No. 

 I beg your pardon : it was on a Saturday. 



3931. Would the men be entitled to leave work? 

 Yea; but if we ask them to keep on, we expect them 

 to do so in harvest time. 



3932-3. Had you made a request to them to con- 

 tinue working? Yes; we should not have started 

 threshing if we had not thought they were going to 

 work all day. 



3934. May we take it' that you had *p9MMch*d 

 these men to continue working and that thry had 

 started the threshing on the understanding that 

 they would work, and then they broke that under- 

 taking? I did not go to each man individually :nnl 

 say: Will yon work all day? It is an understood 

 thing by th'e men and has been tin- custom for years 

 that if we start to do a job, they will see it through. 



3935. But have not the customs changed to thnt 

 extent and have not tho hours been altered : V . 

 they get a half holiday. 



393fl. And does not that necessitate entirely 

 different understandings from what you had pre- 



\iously? No, not altogether. We do not ask the 

 men in harvest time if they are going to take a 

 holiday or not. We take it for granted that they 

 are going to work on and get the overtime rat. 



3937. But surely it is worth while to have a clear 

 understanding on these point*, if it is only U> avoid 

 things of this description? One will have to in the 

 future, I am afraid. You cannot trust them. 



3938. But surely, it is not a question of trusting 

 them. It is a question surely of a common sense 

 policy of understanding. If a man's working week 

 UUMM at one o'clock and he is required to work 

 beyond that', surely the man ought to be told or 

 ought to have it intimated to him that that is 

 necessary? I think if a man knows we are starting 

 threshing 'and he had said to us, I am going to play 

 cricket this afternoon, we should not have got up 

 .steam. We should have saved two or three cwt. of 

 coal, to start with. 



3939. You know that these cricket matches do take 

 place? Yes. 



3940. Do you suggest that they are undesirable? 

 Not at all. 



3941. Do you agree that if the labourer is to be 

 retained on the land, his surroundings have got to be 

 made more pleasant than they have been? I think 

 the more pleasant you can make them, the better for 

 the farmer and the labourer. 



3942. That it is desirable to break down the mono- 

 tony of village life as it has been for some time? 

 Yes, as far as possible. But you cannot treat agri- 

 culture as if it were under a roof ; you must thresh 

 when the weather is fine. 



3943. And one of the best ways to break down that 

 monotony is to give the labourer some chance of 

 recreation? I quite agree. 



3941. And therefore you do not look upon cricket 

 as undesirable? Not at all; I would like to see them 

 play every week. 



3945. Having admitted that, does not it suggest 

 to your mind that it being a desirable thing for both 

 from your standpoint and that of the labourer it 

 would be well if there were some clear understand- 

 ing during these periods to avoid such difficulties 

 as you have referred to? Is not this really part of 

 the organising that is wanted on the farm to get the 

 proper results? Have you had any farming 

 perience yourself:' 



3946. No, I have not? I am managing a farm of 

 2,700 acres, and if I have got to ride round CM-IV 

 morning and ask tho men if they are going to play 

 cricket or not, I should waste all my time on horse- 

 back. 



:t9 1 7. You do not suggest that it is necessary that 

 you should have to go round to each man? -Some- 

 body else would have to do it if I did not. It would 

 be an enormous waste of time. 



3948. You surely do not suggest that, especially in 

 regard to threshing where the men work in com- 

 panies. Is not there generally some man who is con- 

 sidered a representative, a leader of the company, or 

 something of that sort, or over-lord, or wh:' 

 term you may use? We have a farm foreman, if that 

 is what you mean. 



3949. Yes. Could not you work through him and 

 get those understandings? We shall have to, I sup- 

 |K>SC, in the future, if labour goes on like this. 



:t!ViO. But surely you have never considered it de- 

 siraWe that you should go round and approach each 

 man in order to organise the work of tho farm pro- 

 perly? No; it has never been necessary in tho past. 

 If the men are, going to leave us in the lurch, wo shall 

 have to do it. 



3051 . You do not suggest that seriously, do you ? 

 Yes. Labour has got so uninaii:iL'< > alili> now that I 

 do suggest it very seriously- wilfully unmanageable. 



3952. You seriously suggest that tlie des-iro to par- 

 ticipate in a cricket match which may have been 

 arranged weeks beforehand without the knowledge 

 that threshing or harvest operations would be taking 

 place during that period is a wilful act? Yes. 



39.").'). I am sorry I cannot agree witii you. You 

 speak of the increase of the lack of skilled lal>our and 

 the callousness of young workmen employed on agri- 

 culture: do not you think that during tho wnr (lie 

 knowledge that young men would be automatically 



