AGRICULTURAL EARNINGS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 20, 25 January 1911, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL EARNINGS.

INTERESTING 1 FIGURES. {From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 16th December. The Board of Trade is conducting a Eeneral enquiry into the earnings and ours of workpeople in all trades in the United Kingdom, and its report on the wages and conditions of employment of agricultural labourers, is now published. The statistics are compiled from the reports of 15,800 farmers, who refer to no fewer than 78,000 farm labourers. The annual and weekly earnings for the different countries are as follow : — England, £47 15s and 18s sd ; Wales and Monmouthshire, £46 16s and 18s; Scotland, £50 19s and 19s 7d ; Ireland, £29 4s and 11s 3d. In three English counties— Durham, Northumberland, and Lancashire — and seven Scottish counties — Dumbarton, Stirling, Lanark, Clackmannan, Fife, Liniithgow, and Renfrew— the average weekly wages were 21s or above. The five counties in which average earnings were lowest were all in Ireland—Longford, Westmeath, Mayo, Sligo, and Brfoscommon — the average being less than 10s a week. The county in England with the highest average earnings was Durham, •with 22s a week, and the lowest Oxfordshire, with 16s 4d. The county in Wales with the highest average earnings was Glamorganshire, with 19s 3d, and the lowest Cardiganshire, with 16s 6d. In Scotland, Dumbarton had the highest average (21s 7d), and Caithness the lowest (14s 6d). In Ireland the highest average earnings were 14s a week, in Antrim, and the lowest 9s Bd, in Iftscommon. It is pointed out, however, that in comparing these earnings with those of labourers in industrial towns it should not be forgotten that the rent of cottages is much lower in country villages than in towns. Moreover, the village labourer has opportunities for growing vegetables or of obtaining them at lower prices than the urban -workman.