400 



Parliamentary Publications. 



Board of Trade. — Fourth Annual Report on Changes in 

 Wages and Hours of Labour in the United KiiigdoiUy 

 1896. [C. — 8444.] Price \s. 6d. 



Particulars of changes in the wages of agricultural 

 labourers have again been collected in the same manner as 

 hitherto, i.e.^ by applying to the Chairmen of Rural District 

 Councils in England and Wales for the current rates of the 

 weekly cash wages in June and December. The information 

 again applies only to ordinary agricultural labourers, and 

 men engaged exclusively about animals are not included. 



The particulars of increase and decrease in wages in 

 England and Wales in the years 1896 and 1895 sum- 

 marised in the following table : — 





Changes in 1896 as com- 

 pared with 1895. 



Changes in 1895 com- 

 pared with 1894. 



Number of 

 labourers 

 affected. 



Change per 

 week per 

 head. 



Number of 

 labourers 

 affected. 



Change per 

 week per 

 head. 



Increases 

 Decreases 



Total labourers affected 

 and average net change - 



58,578 

 40,751 



s. d. 



+ 0 8J- 

 — 0 10 



27,556 

 92,334 



s. d. 



+ 0 6i 

 - 0 8f 



99,329 



+ 0 I 



1 19,890 



- 0 5i 



It thus appears that there was on the whole a tendency 

 towards an increase in the wages of labourers, whereas in 

 1895 there was a decrease. On the whole number of agricul- 

 tural labours in England and Wales, the rise per head in 1896 

 amounts to about |d. per week as compared with a fall of |d. 

 in 1895. It should be noted, however, that in addition to the 

 definite changes in wages recorded here, there were 50,738 

 men in receipt of a certain range of wages whose pay (by a 

 change in the maximum or minimum rate) showed a tendency 

 to increase, and 31,406 whose wages similarly showed a 

 tendency to decrease. 



As regards the districts where the recorded changes 

 occurred, it appears from the following table that the most 

 numerous alterations took place in the principal corn- 



