MR. LLOYD MORGAN (Carmarthen, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he has received a copy of a resolution, passed by the members of the Carmarthen Chamber of Agriculture, calling attention to the difficulties in which farmers in the county of Carmarthen and elsewhere are frequently placed owing to agricultural servants in breach of their contract leaving the service of their masters after the winter months are over and before the harvest begins; and whether, owing to the fact that such servants are always engaged by the year, and that they refuse to sign any written agreement, he will consider the question of introducing a Bill to amend the fourth section of the Statute of Frauds so as to make it unnecessary (in order to recover damages for breach of contract) for any agreement of service between farmer and servant to be in writing, even though it be an agreement which cannot be performed within a year of the time of the making thereof.
§ MR. HANBURYI do not think that Parliament can reasonably be asked to place contracts for agricultural labour on a different footing to other contracts in respect of the evidence required to prove the contracts by the Statute of Frauds.