Rural Labour at Home.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7285, 12 August 1893, Page 2

Rural Labour at Home.

. The following are summaries of reports by I the Royal Commission on Agrionltural Labour in England. The labourer in the Nor’h : Gita a wage not only higher but more evenly distributed over the year ; consequently he is better nourished and stronger. lifif-eives more perquisites, partly because there are relics of the system of payment in kind. Has regular and constant work throughout the year, being paid both in sickness and wet weather. Lives nearer his work, and has generally, a j better cottage. I Has, on the whole, greater security ot I tenure. I Bas not the same facility, and consequently’, I not the same temptation to visit the publio J house. I Is able to obtain good wages for his sons j and daughters, when old enough to work, if | they desire agricultural employment. { Has the prospect of rising from the position. | of labourer to that of farmer, j On the other baud tba Eastern Counties labourer — j Has somewhat shorter hours of labour. '■ On large estates frequently gets -a better cottage and garden a- a cheaper rent, j Bas better sanitary arrangements. Has the advantage of living in a village \ where his fa-rily can get more society and his children are saved a long walk to and from school. When the Eastern Counties labourer is asked what be wants he says higher wages j i while the Northern labourer would like a half holiday once a week. In the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk wages have gone up appreciably in three i northern counties, and in the eastern counties j it is satisfactory for the labourers that the 1 wages ere no lower now, in a time of severe agricultural depression, than they have been, for the past ten years. Work is less arduous, owing to the working hours being more defined to fixed limits, to. the introduction of machinery, and to the better class of implements now used. Cottages built in recent years are generally far superior in all respects to those erected iq former times, many of which, however, unfortunately still remain. Pi ices of rood and clothing are considerably cheaper than they were, the result being that the labourer lives better than he did, spends more on trips by train to towns, thus getting his views and ideas enlarged. There is leas drunkenness everywhere. Allotments have, generally speaking, been placed within the reach of those who require them m Norfolk and Suffolk. The supply of water has much improved owing to the sinking of wells, and drainage is better attended to. 'ihe opportunities of education given to tl e present generation have largely increased,, The labourers all appreciate free education. Commenting on the above the IknJfa Chronicle says : Where wages are comparatively high the. hours of labour are so excessive that the. labourer’s highest idea is of a weekly balk.

holiday for which, during a lifetime of hard work, he sighs in vain. 'lhsn bid cottage is a mean abode for a man with a fatnilr, and the difficulty which he finds in giving his children * decent start in life presses heavily on him through all his struggles. Hard wok, low wages, coarse food, and bad housing are •till the chief characteristics of the agricultural labourer’s lot. To enable him to escape from some of the evils of his condition, the first thing necessary is that he should get • footing on the soil. With some bold of toe •oil and the certainty that be could produce some kind of subsistence from it, the labourer would be more independent, and in a better position to demand adequate remuneration for hia labour. We are not surprised to learn that even the most prosperous labourers find Tillage life oppressively dull in the evening ihe meant for social recreation seem to be wholly wanting. There is a com plete absence of those simple rural •porta which once constituted the joy of ** merry England,” and which the poets, at least, assure us, provided abundant recreation and amusement for the rustics of tbe good old days. Ponding tbe settlement of tbe more strictly economic questions of rural life and industry, we should rejoice to s«o some movement among tbe classes, above tbe rank of the labourers, towards brightening tbe lives of the workers of the fields, and making them more joyous and happy iu their cottage homes.