200 PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. [Sept. 1896. 



table exhibits the main features of the changes in the course of 

 the year : — 



District. 



Number . 

 of 



Labourers 

 whose 



Net Gain or Loss in 



Weekly Wages 

 throughout the Year. 





Wages were 









changed. 



Per Head. 



Total. 



Northern Counties - 

 Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire - 

 Midland and Eastern Counties - 

 Southern and Western Counties 

 Wales - 



2,151 

 2,860 

 101,083 

 20,087 

 3,300 



5. d. 

 + 03 



- 0 5f 



- 0 ,5£ 



- o i\ 



+ 07 



£ 



+ 26 



- 69 



- 2,215 



- 542 

 + 95 



England and Wales 



129,481 



- 0 5 



- 2,705 



It will be seen that there was a small rise of wages in the 

 northern counties and in Wales, and a small fall in Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, and Cheshire. This is attributed to the agricultural 

 depression having been felt less severely in the north ; and, in 

 the manufacturing districts, to the migration of labour to the 

 towns, which would prevent wages from falling, or to the opening 

 of new works and quarries. Where the depression has been 

 more severe, or roughly speaking, south of the Humber, there 

 has been a considerable decline in wages, especially in the corn- 

 growing counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridge. 



The great centres of changes in agricultural wages were in the 

 Eastern and Midland counties, including the principal corn- 

 growing districts, in which no fewer than 101,083 labourers 

 (out of a total of 379,424) were in districts ^where wages 

 changed during the year. Of these, 85,686 sustained a fall, and 

 15,397 obtained a rise, the net effect being a fall of 2,215£. in 

 weekly wages. Thus these counties account for over three 

 quarters of the entire fall of wages recorded in the whole of 

 England and Wales. The principal fall in wages l}as taken 

 place in the corn -growing counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, 

 and Cambridge, where 53,954 labourers were in districts in 

 which wages decreased during the year, the net effect of all the 

 changes in these counties being a fall of 1,434£. per week. The 

 increase in the wages of 7,146 labourers in these districts was 

 confined to three poor law unions. In one of these market- 

 gardening is carried on extensively. 



In several districts in the Midland counties where the rate of 

 wages has been maintained, this is said to be clue to the existence 

 of boot and shoe or hosiery industries in the villages, and also in 

 some cases to the extension of railway lines, or the opening of 

 granite quarries, lime and cement works, &c. 



It should be added that it is not infrequently reported, more 

 particularly in the Eastern and Midland counties, that there has 

 been a tendency for farmers to reduce the number of men 



