44 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



and fourth, the change which had taken place, if any, 

 during the ten years preceding the inquiry. From this 

 it appears that the rents are from one to two shillings 

 a week, the most usual rent being eight eenpence. It 

 may therefore be deduced that the average rental through- 

 out England is eighteenpence a week ; but the land- 

 lords generally do repairs and pay rates and taxes. 



These are sufficiently moderate terms, but they do 

 not prevail near big towns or large residential and in- 

 dustrial centres ; and in reference to these the rates 

 go up appreciably from a minimum of two to a maxi- 

 mum of four shillings a week, making an average weekly 

 rental of three shillings, or just double the rents payable 

 in the purely agricultural districts. 



From our own inquiries, inferences, and deductions, 

 we believe that the averages indicated are perfectly 

 representative of the present time. The late Mr. W. C. 

 Little, senior Assistant Commissioner to the Royal Com- 

 mission on Labour, reviewing the statements of the 

 other Assistant Commissioners who had reported on 

 typical agricultural districts in nearly every county in 

 England, said that the estimates of the Assistant Com- 

 missioners and their informants as to the value of a 

 cottage and garden, as an addition to wages where no 

 rent is paid, varied from 2, 125. to 5, 45. a year, the 

 most usual sum being 4. Mr. Little further said that 

 " Rent has generally no relation to the size of the cottage 

 and cost of its construction, the accommodation which 

 it affords, its condition as regards repair or sanitary 

 arrangements, or to the earnings of the occupier." 



Mr. Fox says what is perfectly true, and strikes at the 

 root of the agricultural labourer's cottage difficulty when 

 he says : " The cost of building a pair of cottages in 

 accordance with present requirements is generally said 

 to be from 300 to 400, and not unfrequently up to 

 450 or 500. It is apparent that, with rents at is. 6d. 

 or 2s. a week, and with rates to pay and repairs to execute, 



