The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1914. AGRICULTURAL LABORERS’ STRIKE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 13, 6 May 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1914. AGRICULTURAL LABORERS’ STRIKE.

When the last English mail left tl;ero was a “crisis” in North-west * Norfolk. There has, of late, been much discussion in England on the question of agricultural laborers’ wages, with a pretty general recognition that in view of the increased cost of living, and some degree of improvement in agricultural conditions, some advance in farm laborers’ wages should, at any rate, be given reasonable and careful consideration. The crisis has been precipitated by the notices served on the farmers of North-west Norfolk by the Agricultural Laborers’ Union,' demanding their adoption of “the King’s wages” and “the King a conditions,” or in other words, an increase of wages from 14s to 16s per week, and a holiday after one o’clock on Saturdays. M bile most of the farmers are more or less willing to consider the question of wages, they are violently opposed to the proposed half-holiday, and resent the action of the Laborers’ Union. r lhe tendency seems to take the direction of a fight between the Farmers’ Federation and the Laborers’ L nion. So

fav, lacking recognition by the federation, the union has gone on the 'linos of approaching the farmers individually, and while both sides are determind the union officio Is claim that their proposals are distinctly [fair and reasonable, and that funds |will not ho lacking to support them in their struggle. The financial resources of the federation are extensive—farmers at first subscribed 3d Jpor acre, but latterly Id per acre hat sufficed —and locally there is « ple*jtiful supply of labor toady to hand.

POSTAGE STAMPS.

The constantly increasing of the postage stamps issued in Biitain and her dependencies is discussed in an article in the Manchester Gu.ir-j dian,” based on the changes m the Australian issue. ‘‘A mistaken sense of loyalty,” the “Guardian” puts it, “is leading one dominion and colony after another to sacrifice the symbolical and imaginative designs that added to the romance of our overseas correspondence of earlier days in favor of the King’s head and, alas, a very poorly executed picture of it. The seals, the swans,, the emus, the deserts, and the mountain ranges that gave an authentically travelled look to letters from far corners of the Empire have almost all given place to stamps not different at a glance front those we may buy in dull sixpenny worths at the post-office. We are left to envy China her flaming dragons and Egypt her glowing reproductions of pyramids and temples. The cause of ‘lmperialism,’ if that is the object of the change, was better served in the old way. The stamp representing a kangaroo sitting on a continent, which Australia is now abandoning, is a more telling advertisement than any portrait designs could be. We should think King George, who is said to have a very line collection, must, on some grounds, deplore these changes as much as anyone. Here, then, is a task that will save stamp collectors from the charge of devotion to a useless hobby; to avert the death of romance in Imperial postage.”