AGRICULTURAL DRAMATIS PKRSOX.i: 59 



to the success of any agriculturist standing for Parlia- 

 ment. Yet, if the organized industry is to carry the 

 weight it should politically, it is essential that agricul- 

 turists should vote " soHd." The labourer is not to be 

 blamed for this attitude ; it is the result of low wages 

 and bad conditions in the past, and to an ingrained 

 feeling of suspicion due to the treatment that has been 

 meted out to him for so long. 



Coming to the immediate present — a revolution in 

 the labour situation has taken place within the last five 

 years ; a minimum rate of wages is enforced by a 

 Statutory Wage Hoard, our agricultural labourers are 

 rapidly enrolling in Unions and a spirit of independence 

 has appeared. This revolution has perturbed and is 

 perturbing our farmers, especially the smaller farmers 

 who employ only two or three labourers ; and yet all 

 things considered the upheaval has not been so great as 

 might have been expected. 



Nothing but disaster can follow if the organized 

 farmers on the one hand, and the organized labourers on 

 the other, stand out simply for their own sectional 

 interests, and forget that these can be secured only by 

 thinking of the good of the industry as a whole. (I am 

 here referring to the Unions not to other organizations.) 

 So that the immediate problem is how to get labour to 

 work shoulder to shoulder with the farmer in the 

 development of the industry. 7'his implies the need for 

 good feeling, which is essential as it is the only founda- 

 tion on which to build. 



Although in politics the labourer and the farmer are 

 opposed so generally, and there are farmers whose 

 treatment of their men leaves much to be desired, yet, 

 on the other hand, there are many farmers whose 

 relations with their men are excellent. Aiul where 



