85 



The reasons for the employment of boys under fourteen years have 

 been the demand of farmers for supposed cheap labour and the parents' 

 need of the small earnings. The wages of these young boys did not 

 often exceed 4s. per week, and a small increase in the earnings of adults 

 over the real value of pre-war rates would in most cases compensate 

 for the loss of the 10 or so to which the yearly earnings of the boy 

 amounted. 



There are many social problems which also affect the position of 

 the labourer, and perhaps chief amongst these is that of housing. 

 The shortage of cottages or deficiency in quality cannot be separated 

 from the question of economic return from the agricultural industry. 

 Cottages are not built or improved because owners of land who provide 

 cottage equipment cannot build so as to secure the current rate of return 

 on capital invested. Farm rents are often too low to cover the cost 

 of new or better cottage equipment. In some cases, however, cottages 

 have been built as a matter of social duty. Investors in small property 

 do not build or improve cottages for the occupation of farm workers 

 because their rates of wages do not provide a margin sufficient to pay 

 for better housing accommodation. Where the difficulty is one of 

 absolute shortage of cottages, many complaints have been made against 

 the restrictions imposed by local bye-laws ; but in the main these' 

 local bye-laws are based on fair demands for a standard of housing 

 under modern conditions ; and in view of the general complaints as 

 to deficiency in quality it is useless to build cottages which will not. 

 meet the fair demands of the labourer and his wife. 



The shortage of cottages in rural areas is often the cause of hard 

 conditions, for the labourer who lives in a ' tied ' cottage may have 

 to leave his cottage and, it may be, the district, as well as his employ- 

 ment at the end of a short notice. With an adequate supply of free 

 cottages this hardship would be mitigated. 



It is difficult to see how farm organisation can be carried out without 

 the residence of some men such as carters and shepherds in cottages 

 attached to the farm ; but they should not be penalised in any way 

 because of such residence. They might be granted a little relief by a 

 legal provision that a month's notice should be required for the ter- 

 mination of the tenancy of the cottage, without reference to the notice 

 required to leave employment. This would tend to disorganise the 

 farm occasionally, but it would make the employer considerate with 

 regard to giving notice. It is regrettable that in some districts there 

 is a tendency to attach cottages to farms in excess of the number re- 

 quired for those men who must live near to stock, thus placing the 

 otherwise free cottages under the control of farmers. Nothing robs 

 the labourer of his liberty more than this. 



The only satisfactory solution of the rural housing problem will be 

 found in a policy of building houses by local sanitary authorities. 

 So far as possible their schemes should be of a self-supporting character, 

 for subsidisation in the form of provision of cheap capital means a 

 grant in aid of the low wages paid in the industry. In districts in which 



