78 THE MmORITY REPORT 



etc. ; still more will it prevent suitable townsmen from seek- 

 ing work on the land." 



Our view is that the State must take action, on the 

 one hand to estabHsh and maintain a proper standard 

 of wages for all farm workers, and on the other to 

 ensure to the agricultural industry such measure of 

 security and prosperity as will encourage the employ- 

 ment of labour at such wages. And in this view also 

 we are glad to note that the Chairman agrees. We 

 consider the two reforms as complementary to each 

 other, and that the needs of the Nation can only be 

 met if worker and farmer are helped together. 



9. This brings us to section (c) of the Majority 

 Report. It is here that we find ourselves in the most 

 serious disagreement with our colleagues. 



In paragraph 175 of their Report the Majority say 

 that " the highest interests of the Nation require that more 

 should he done than merely to provide for agriculture a 

 supply of labour equal to that employed before the War^^^ 

 and that the opportunity afforded by demobihsation 

 should be seized in order to effect "a grejat reinforce- 

 ment of our rural population. ^"^ 



In paragraph 176 they refer to the importance of 

 increasing our home production of food. 



In paragraph 177 they say that these two objects — 

 the increase of the home-grown food supply and of the 

 rural population — cannot be left out of account in con- 

 sidering how to promote the employment of ex-Service 

 men on the land. 



But in paragraph 178 they express the opinion that 

 the requisite changes in agricultural policy could not 

 be effected in time to employ the ex-Service men. For 



