1(3 THE RURAL PROBLEM 



These groups probably include most families of an average 

 size, and the amounts given probably represent with com- 

 parative accuracy the amount required for the maintenance 

 of a labourer's familv. In addition, the following more 

 detailed budget may be compiled from statistics connected 

 with the fiscal controversy, and published with additional 

 information as an appendix to Cd. 2376 of 1905 : 



Food 



Kent 



Fuel and Lighting. 



Clothes 



£10 3 



In these estimates no allowance is made for smaller house- 

 hold requirements, beer, tobacco, amusements, or even the 

 inevitable Sunday paper. The amount spent on beer and 

 tobacco will obviously depend upon the character of the 

 individual family. Two shillings, however, may be added 

 to give an approximate amount for this expenditure, and 

 fourpence for insurance, and the total then becomes 22s. 7d. 

 It may, therefore, be accepted that a labourer with a wage 

 of under 22s. 7d. a week, ten years ago, was not receiving 

 sufficient to maintain a reasonable standard of comfort, 

 and that one with less than 20s. 4d. per week, with a family 

 of average size, was unable to obtain the barest necessities 

 of life. And the cost of living has increased in the last ten 

 years. But even if we take this pound a week standard as 

 being the living wage when there is only one wage-earner in 

 the family, and where his wages are the only form of income, 

 a reference to the tables quoted in the Appendix will show 

 that the wages of ordinary agricultural labourers are several 

 shillings below this level in every area outside the Northern 

 Counties, and that the earnings of the men in charge of 

 animals are considerably less over most of the Southern 

 and Eastern Counties not in close proximity to London. 



It must be remembered, too, that the agricultural 

 labourer has been more hardly hit by the decrease in the 

 purchasing power of his wage than almost anyone else. 



