358 PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. [Dec. 1895. 



Beport on Wages and Hours of Labour, Part I. Changes in 

 Bates of Wages and Hours of Labour in the United 

 Kingdom in 1893. [C— 7567.] Price Is. 3d 



The portion of this Report which deals with agricultural 

 labour is confined to a comparative statement of the rates of 

 hiring at certain hiring fairs for corresponding periods in 1892 

 and 1893. 



Generally speaking, agricultural wages in 1893, up to the 

 autumn, remained at the same level as in the previous year, but 

 in the autumn they declined in certain counties below the rates 

 paid in the autumn of 1892. With reference to this decline, 

 allowance must be made for the effect of the prolonged drought 

 upon the employment of labour. The corn and root crops were 

 so scanty in 1893 that in the winter there was very little 

 threshing or work in connection with the root crops. The hay 

 crop also was so deficient that many farmers sold their cattle at 

 very low prices in the autumn, as they could not afford the 

 expense of buying food for them during the winter, and, in con- 

 sequence, the employment of those who attend to stock was, in 

 some districts, injuriously afiected. Again, the great losses which 

 farmers sustained through the failure of the crops compelled 

 many to economise in their labour bills, and, further, farm work 

 was so forward in the autumn, that less labour than usual was 

 required during the winter. 



At the north country hirings (yearly arid half yearly), both in 

 England and Scotland, which took place in the spring of 1893, 

 there was not infrequently a slight increase of wages compared 

 with the corresponding period in 1892. But at the autumn 

 hirings there was a downward tendency in England, though 

 generally in Scotland wages remained at the same level. 



Thus, at the annual March hirings in Northumberland, at 

 Alnwick, Berwick-on-Tweed, and Wooler, though the rates of 

 weekly wages of hinds, exclusive of perquisites, varied between 

 15s. and 18s. both in 1892 and 1893, more men were in receipt 

 of 17s. in the latter year than in the former. Again, at the 

 same hirings, the wages of women in 1892 were Is. 4d or Is. 6d. 

 a day in winter and Is. Qd. a day in summer ; whereas in 1893 

 most women received Is. 6d. a day all the year round. Also at 

 the Newcastle -on-Tyne yearly hiring more men obtained the 

 higher rates in 1893 than in 1892. But at the half-yearly 

 hiring at Newcastle, the rates of wages for servants who are 

 boarded in the farm-houses, both at the May and November 

 hirings remained the same as in 1892. 



At the half-yearly spring hirings in Cumberland, Westmor- 

 land, and Lancashire, wages of first-class men were usually the 

 same as in 1892. At Penrith (Cumberland) there was a slight 

 decrease — the wages in 1892 were 16^. to 17^., and in 1893 15^. 

 to 16^. 10s. But at Lancaster they increased from 13^. to 15^. 

 in 1892 to 15^. to 17^. in 1893. 



