THE AGRICULTURAL LABORER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 46, 15 November 1900, Page 10

THE AGRICULTURAL LABORER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The British Board of Trade ha« issued a report, written by the Assistant Commissioner or Labor, which shows the rate of pay rv.eived by agncultuial laborers in various parts of the United Kinudom. il,e report is bastd ou a broad inquiry. Over 9000 schedule* were se^t out to employe of labor in England alone, and particulars were received rating to 1K,U69 laborers. From the information supplied from this and other sources certain interesting p.truouKwr, ui.ij U glcciucJ. lv He fir.-t place, the laborer's weekly wage docs not represent all his earnings. Wages are supplemented oy tuu s aua «ili«jw«imx o which arc generally greater where the weekly cash wage i» lowest. Thus in arable counties like Norfolk, VW.ts, and Gloucester the 11s or 12s wage is increased by earnings amounting to over 3s per week ; whilst in counties like Derbyshire and Lancashire, where the weekly wage is from 17s to 18s 2d the extras do not amount to 2s a week Thews extras are derived from piece-work, special payment* for harvest time, hop and fruit growing, etc. Actual earnings vary ttom 2ite and upwards in Durham and Northumberland to Us or 1.1 8 in Wilts and Gloucester, and there is the plainest evidence of the way in which the rate of agricultural wages is affected by the neighborhood of minim? and manufacturing industries.

Reviewing the last 50 years it is found that wages have inoreased on the average as much as 48 per cent, lurning next to a comparison of the different conditions and rate of wage of rural labor in the United Kingdom, it ia found that the average total earnings of the laborer were in England 16s 10d,in Wales 16s sd, in Sootland 18s Id, and in Ireland 10^ Id. The county in the United Kingdom where the average weekly earnings were highest in 1898 was Renfrew, in Scotland, where they were 21s 3d, and they were lowest in Mayo, Ireland, where they were 8s 7d. In Scotland, the women are largely employed at field work in many districts, which is great assistance to the farmers, as they get efficient labor at a comparatively small expense. There are very few extra cash payments very little piecework (if any) or extra payments at hay time and harvest ; but there are many allowances in kind. Shepherds are often paid largely, and sometimes entirely, in kind, and therefore the excess of earnings over wages is mainly due to allowances in kind. In Ireland the report points out that in many distriots in the counties of Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, and Donegal, agricultural laborers as a class scarcely exist except on large estates, the work on the larger farms being undertaken by the sons of the small farmers, who work on their father's land, cut turf, and gather sea-weed if near the shore, when not able to earn wages. A number of them go to work on farms in England and Scotland, and those who live near the coast often do some rising. Very little piecework is done in Ireland, and comparatively little extra money 13 earned in addition to the ca-h wages. In a number of districts it is the custom (as in Wale-) for the men on weekly or daily engagements to get their meals in the farmhouse, receiving a lower rate of wages. The excess of weekly earnings over weekly casu wages is seldom as much as Is a week, and in many counties not over 7d. There were 28 counties in Ireland where the average weekly earnings in 1898 were under 10s a week.