ENGLISH AND FOREIGN WAGES RATES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2781, 10 May 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN WAGES RATES.

Mr Gli"?EN' has just given to the world it Blue-book, the result of his averages of the wages earned by English workpeople, and as in the years he deals with —18.3."> and ISSG—the writer was engaged in ascertaining the wages of workpeople in other European countrie o , it may bo of interest to make a comparison, especially at the moment when the German Em-

peror has taken the causo of labour within liia special care. In Fraup.ein the Lille district, in tbe cotton factories [lie hours of labour are 12 per day, :m'l t!i<; pay for men weavers five fratim a d ly, or 21s per sveuli ; other workmen about four franks per (lay; women 2 francs >30 cants to '6 francs per (lay, i.e., 12< to 1-m ppr week; tjirls about J. franc to 1 franc i>() cents per day, say 7s to Sh P"r vv:f k. These wages are much the same for the linen and cotton trade. In Silesia, where there are large cotton factories, the wages for a 12 hours a day labourer me —men 103 to 18s per week, women 10; per week ; but here children are only employed after they are 14 years of ago. In the factories near Berlin very »l«ciiifc!y clad women are engaged in the woollea trades in the rag-sorting rooms, an I earn 9s per week. At the spinning mills girU are employed where boys are eng itj; 1 in Enijlaud, and these earn Gs per weuk, at the looms the skirls and women earn 11 a per week; the same work iu En, Man I gets paid about 15s to 20s per week. Tli ! hours of labour are GGi, but they genei • ally work 72, getting some overtime. In Austria, especially in Bohemia, this men in many trades earn bat 10.1 t3 Is p"r day; and a man and his wife an 1 six children will work for one employer for £u0 a year. Going further east, at Cracow, the hours are longer, and men work 12 to 16 hours a day for about this same rate of wages—say Is per day. In Russia, where the cotton, from the newly-acquired Bikara districts is worked up, the wages are about £1 per month and some tlour; and 4s per month for hoys. Oo np uv these wagC3 with Mr Gillen's Engli-h wages of JL'l to for men, !)s to 15* for woineii. and 5" to 7s for girls ; and it will be seen how hard it must be for English fabrics to compete with foreigu-m ule fabrics ; and it must be remembered that these poorly-paid districts are now in close communication with England by rail, and we receive much of their manufacture. Will not the Gernnn Emperor opeu his workpeople's eyes to the lowness uf their pay-