Subjects Discussed: 1. AGRICULTURAL WAGE REGULATION; 2. BREAD. DILUTION OF FLOUR.; 3. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION; 4. PIGS. SLAUGHTER FOR DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION.

###TURAL ###ION. ###us ###ce: ###) 4th ###, ###1.) 1. The Committee had before them a Joint Memorandum by the Minister of Labour and National Service and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (L.P.(42) 220) regarding the machinery for determining agricultural wages. The Memorandum proposed:- (i) That no amendment of agricultural wage-fixing machinery should be undertaken at present; but (ii) That the National Farmers' Union and the Agricultural Workers' Unions should be informed:- (a) that because of the unlikelihood that agreement could be reached within the industry on alterations to the wagefixing machinery, the Government had decided not to amend, for the present, the existing law: (b) that the Government wished to make it clear, however, that in any discussions about returns to farmers in relation to costs of production, labour costs would be assessed by reference to the national minimum wage, fixed by the Agricultural Wages Board: and (c) that in consequence, if local wage increases are granted by Agricultural Wages Committees, they will fall to be met out of the current returns of the industry.