650 



Conciliation Committees. 



[Oct., 



was given to the Committees in this respect by the agreement 

 reached by the Northamptonshire Committee on the 16th 

 January, the agreement being made to cover the whole of the 

 farming season to the beginning of October. Certain Committees, 

 however, have preferred to avoid fixing a definite period to their 

 agreements but have made them for undefined periods with a 

 proviso for termination on specified notice by either side. 



Taking the year as a whole, 55 out of the 61 areas have made 

 agreements, there being 6 areas in which, notwithstanding 

 frequent meetings, no agreements have been reached. About 

 40 agreements have been for periods of 5-6 months (or more). 



Average Wages. — With the falling prices of farm produce 

 and the drop in the cost of living, the tendency of wages through- 

 out the year has been downwards. Owing to the variations in 

 hours and overtime and the absence of agreements in certain 

 areas, only an approximate estimate of average wages for the 

 country as a whole is possible, but taking the agreed rates in the 

 various areas on a weekly basis and making allowance for the 

 prevailing wages in areas without agreements, it is estimated 

 that average weekly wages of ordinary adult male workers have 

 varied as follows : — • 



1921. s. (1. 



Aiiu^iist ... 4r> 



Seiitember ... 42 (> 



October ... 40 



Noveml)er ... .^8 



Decenilier ... 87 



1922. s. ri, 



Jannat'v ... 33 (^ 



r.4>niarv ... 33 



March ... 32 G 



ApHl— Aiipist 32 



The figure for September, 1921, is the minimum rate of wages 

 as last adjusted by the Agricultural Wages Board and that for 

 August, 1921, represents the average minimum rate in force 

 during the previous 12 months. It will be seen that the average 

 wage in August, 1922, had fallen by 14s. 6d. or about 30 per 

 cent, from the minimum rates ruling during the last year of the 

 Wages Board's existence, but that taking into consideration 

 the last reduction made by the Wages Board, wages have fallen 

 only 10s. 6d. or 23 per cent, during the period of the actual 

 working of the Concihrition Committees. The Ministry of 

 Labour's cost of living index figure on 1st August, 1921. was 

 122 per cent, above the 1914 base, and had fallen to 81 per cent, 

 on the 1st August, 1922, i.e., a decline during the year of about 

 18 per cent. 



Space does not permit of a full record of the various rates 

 which, have been fixed by the Conciliation Committees within 

 the last year, but although the weekly wage in the period April- 



