THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 17

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Opposing Views At Meeting Rival interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in England were presented by Mr F. J. B. Murray, first assistant at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, and Mr G. M. Miller, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Canterbury, to a meeting of the Historical Association ■(Canterbury) last evening. The earlier thesis of John L. and Barbara Hammond depicting deplorable working conditions as resulting from an over-emphasis cm acquisition, was contrasted with more recent views of T. S. Ashton, who evaluated the Industrial Revolution in terms of the economic growth produced, a supplied report of the meeting said. Ariiton considered that pictures of a depressed work-ing-class had been exaggerated, and that the increased economic wealth went not so much into the pockets of the wealthy few as into the feeding and clothing of a vastly increased population. In drawing an analogy with Ireland, Ashton suggested that the wholesale emigration of the Irish ill the nineteenth century, during which Ireland lost more than onefifth of its population, was a fate that might also have overtaken Britain had she remained a nation of peasants and farmers instead of turning herself into one of tradesmen and shopkeepers.