THE IRISH LABOURER. 115 



practice. With regard to the actual expense 

 of the work alluded to above, the facts are 

 these. In March 1843 when we commenced, 

 provisions were cheap, and we fixed the price 

 of labour considerably under that current in 

 this country at the time by fully two shillings 

 per week on the labour of a man. This price 

 was not increased in 1845. 



Another and perhaps not the least of the 

 many obstacles which oppose the successful 

 introduction of taskwork into Ireland, is the 

 fixing of a limit to the earnings of the work- 

 man. In the north where the wages are Is. 

 per day we found this ne plus ultra to be 

 7s. Qd. weekly. Hence the erroneous conclu- 

 sions noticed in the last paragraph : the labourer 

 to whom we paid 10s. weekly only earned 

 7s. 6d. of them; while, in point of fact, he 

 earned 12s. in order to do justice to Ireland. 

 In a different part of the country, where the 

 ordinary wages of a man were eightpence per 

 day, we found tenpence the limit of the task. 

 For instance, in the interior of Ireland we 

 made up to a man draining upon the demesne 

 of a resident landlord. The labourer was upon 

 taskwork. The utmost he was making was 

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