RURAL ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1921, 2 December 1913, Page 14

RURAL ENGLAND.

LIFE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE,

AN AUSTRALIAN'S'JOTTINGS,

"Neither baths nor parlours will save souls," This downright declaration was mado by Lord Salisbury beforo tho Church Congress at Southampton. 110 wrestled in his speech with the problem of housing tho agricultural labourer. It cost, Jic said, £150 to build a labourer's cottage. Allowing Gper cent, oil tho capital, that would mean an annual rental of £9, or, with rates, 4s. a week. Tho usual rent paid by the British farm worker, however, was only 25., and this meant that tlio building of cottages upon tho countryside was "not a business proposition. Henc& tho shortage of housing, and tho eoaise(juent How of rural people of tho best type into tho cities. Lord Salisbury contended that the squire was not to blame for tho dearth of cottages. In fact, tho squire was a "kindhearted fellow with no head for business, tho only man in England who is fool enough with his eyes open to invest money at a loss." At present nearly all tho . cottages aro built of brick or stone. Lord Salisbury would havo them of wood, and quito plain; they would be comprised merely of a kitchen and sleeping-rooms.

England Still Rural. Lord Salisbury's frank declaration, writes the London correspondent of the Sydnoy "Telegraph," has been condemned by the Radical and Labour journals. But ho could, if ho wished, sliow that bathrooms aro not only extremely seareo in tho great majority of English working-men's homes, but that whero thoy exist they are but little used. Tho agricultural labourer Would probably bo indifferent about either bath or parlour, if ho could only bo provided with a decent living wage, ami not bo obliged, as he is at present, to try and raiso largo families upon 17s. Cd. per week, which is tho average farm worker's wago for all England. Even Lord Salisbury agreed that higher wages were necessary and justified, and' tho discussion at this Church Congress generally showed that if Mr. LioydUcorge in his speech to-morrow declares for a minimum farm rato of £1 a week, ho will havo support far beyond the usual Liberal and Radical vote. Indeed, everything points to this longpromised land campaign being far more popular with tho majority than was cither tho great Insurance Bill or the famous Budget of, 1909. With all her industrialism, England is still at heart very rural, Ono of tho few mistakes of Free-trade was tho old, short-sighted, un-English declaration that the farmer and the countrysido wero no longer worth tho nation's consideration, that agriculture must of necessity pino and -oven disappear, and that the triumphant industrial world must bo fed upon tho cheap products of newer lauds abroad. Not many years ago this doctrine permeated all classes, but to-day it has few friends, oven among tho 'stoutest Froctrado champions. Everybody agrees that tho countrysido must be saved and oven resuscitated. It is tho nation's brcedug ground, and must not bo drained of its manhood. Human ingenuity must be exercised to the full to /leviso some means by which tho llfiiglisli small holder will prosper, and at the same time pay a wago which will be sufficient to retain a proper proportion of youth. Despite tho nise« tccnth century doctrine of industrialism, England's real might still has its roots in field and meadow, and not in the roaring mills and crowded cities of Lancashire.

t Rural Offences. You still get a strong whiff of oldfashioned English country lifo out of the provincial newspapers. Waiting for a train in a Leicestershire village one night last week I read a report of the eases tried that day beforo the North* ampton Divisional Sessions. Some boys wero fined each 13s. and 7s. Gd. costs for "stealing a quantity of growing fruit, value 35.," tho property of tho Hector of Eislingbury, and ' the evidence showed thero had been a lon« cross-country chase by tho rector and tho local polico sergeant. Ono can scarcely imagino an Australian parson chasmg boys for a mile or two, and hauling them up beforo tho local Police Court for tho theft of fruit valued at 3s. But apparently in England th cv prosccuto you for all sorts of offences which don't count in the Commonwealth. At these same sessions two farmers wero summoned "for not keeping a dog under proper control," the oftonce, apparently being that the. allium s wcro allowed off the chain at uight. Trespass cases aro common. Henry Loakes (16) and Kobert Parker U<) wero summoned for "trespassing in search of conies" on land in tho occunatl,°»of l1 tho Marquis of Northampton, at 1 ardley Hastings. Another typical C p Sl \- Wils . a k John Henry Smeeton, or Aaseb.y, a passive resistor, against wlioin 'tho usual order was mado for the non-payment of tho education part ot a poor rate." Arthur Bell, a cowman, was charged with assaulting a farm bailiff who had tumbled his fur-nk-uro out of a cottage in which his term had expired. There was much hard I swearing about tho use of a hamnwr and blows struck in self-defence. Surll eases aro common reading in the coun-ti-y newspapers, and tho savagery with which the tenants resist their forceful ejection shows that tho Britisli farm worker, despite 'his low wages and slu"gisli temperament, is still °mado of the stuff which triumphed at Waterloo.

Work For All. Turning from the news to tho advertisement columns of my Leicestershire paper, I found the story'of tho marvellous prosperity which is attending almost every class in-England to-da/ The "Situations Wanted" columns have shrunk almost to nothing, while wliolo half-pages and pages aro filled with appeals i for tho services of all kinds of workers. In this particular paper a large number of applications wero invited from the male and female apprentices, and thero wero also vacancies for seven housekeepers,- downs of cooks and housemaids and general servants, lots of boys, and what is perhaps most significant, nine openings for various farm workers. The newspaper itself actually advertised for school boys willing to "earn good pocket money" by selling editions in tho streets after school hours. Thero has perhaps never beeii a time in England when it was so easy to get a job.