TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 757 



iinslfilled labour of women. The rise of the clothing; factory and spread of the 

 division of labour system, tho operation of factory legislation, and the Public 

 Health Acts. The diiference between the rates paid to the two sexes for work 

 of the same nature and efhciency. The absence of a standard and uniform rate for 

 women's work. 



Causes which may account for the lower wages-rates of women. Attitude of 

 the men's Union towards the women workers. The nature and significance of 

 women's competition. The e.xtension of mechanical aids favouring the increased 

 application of women's labour. The typographical trade. The new printing 

 machines and the scarcity of boy labour furthering the employment of women. 

 The textile trades of Scotland. These have become practically women's industries 

 since the introduction of the power-loom. Bookbinding. The non-employment 

 of women in many departments of this trade is due to artificial restrictions, such 

 as custom, and the Hues of demarcation laid down by the men's Union. So far 

 as an investigation into the printing, bookbindiiig and kindred trades which is 

 now in progress has gone, it would appear that while machinery has displaced 

 hand labour in certain departments, owing to the largely increased output, there 

 has been an increase in the total number of workers employed all over the factories 

 coming under observation. 



In view of possible future industrial changes, in which women's labour is 

 likely to be a very important factor, there is urgent need for systematic investigations 

 of the nature and conditions of women's labour. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBEU IS. 

 Tlie following Papers and Report were read : — 

 1. The Real Incidence of Local Rates. Bij Cameron Corbett, M.P. 



The incidence of local rates is fundamentally influenced by the question as to 

 whether the area affected by them is fully built up or is afl'ected by a practical 

 chance of additional acccommodation being provided within it. If it be fully built 

 up, then the rate falls on the owner except in so far as the cause of the rates is cal- 

 culated to aft'ect the rents beneficially ; that is to say, the burden of wasteful 

 administration would fall upon him. In the cases where a higher rate affects an 

 area where building can be influenced by it, the burden falls on the tenant in the 

 same way as the burden falls on the consumer of a manufactured article, production 

 being checked thereby. 



The proposal, after taxing building and land together, to put a special second 

 burden on land values would raise the price of houses to buyers, and consequently 

 the rent to tenants. The reduction of four years' purchase in the selling price of 

 ground rents which has taken place during recent years has amounted in many 

 instances to more than the whole cost of the land, and has therefore affected the 

 production of houses as unfavourably for the occupiers in these cases as if the cost 

 of the land bad been doubled. It is quite evident that land values being exposed 

 to a special rate would aft'ect the buyers and tenants of houses very severely, for 

 the builders would require to get as much additional inducement from the buyer 

 of the house as would counterbalance the lessened amount they would receive from 

 ground-rent buyers. 



2. Recent Results of Farm Labour Colonies. By Harold E. Mooee, F.S.I. 



At the Liverpool Meeting in 1895 a paper was read on * Farm Labour Colonies 

 and Poor Law Guardians.' It was then pointed out that farm labour colonies 

 might be considered to be of two distinct classes. One of these would 

 be colonies for the reception of well-conducted men of the working classes 

 temporarily out of employment ; and the other class would be colonies for the 



1901. 3 D 



