BRITAIN'S WAGES SHEET.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 11578, 14 October 1901, Page 4

BRITAIN'S WAGES SHEET.

In. his eighth annual report on the Changes in Bates of Wages and Hours of labour, Mr Llewellyn Smith, of the LaJbour JJepartment, Board of Trade, presents us (says the "Daily Chronicle") with a volume of statistics -which would interest ■everyone if only their bearing on the country's prosperity were made evident. He - is able to report that 1900, the year with -which he deals, was the culminating point in the rise of wages, which had been going I on for four years. The year, as he says, - -was characterised by good trade, steady employment, freedom from disputes, and TSOBg wages. The increase in rates of ■wages was unprecedented, resulting in an • addition to the wages bill of nearly £215,400 per week. The net amount of increase per head of those affected was 3s "" «Jd. Each of 1,136,000 work-people gained on an average this amount per week compared to the previous year. In 1899 the gain was only Is 6£d per head . mer week among the 1,176,000 workpeople ■: affected. These figures, of course, show an enormous increase of wages during the as a whole, thotfgh no account is "taken of the purchasing power of the wage -or the undoubted rise of prices in many necessaries of life. The numbers affected iy this rise represent rather more than a aaventh part of the working population, "and the decrease where it existed only affected 25,010 persons, and only amounted to £2BOO per week. Mr Llewellyn" Smith estimates that a total amount of £6,000,000 mas added to the wages of the working -people as a whole during last year. He lias obtained his returns from employers, i«Sßployers' associations, trades unions, -local correspondents, and official sources. The collection has not been so difficult .as might be supposed, because as a Tale both employers and employed J are well organised. In most instances, he has been obliged to omit agricultural labourers, seamen, and railway ser•TOrts from his tables, for in their cases it has not been possible to obtain the exact sumbers of people affected, and they are accordingly dealt with on a somewhat different method. As a matter of fact, the agriculturists show a considerable increase m wage, the railway servants a considerable increase, and the seamen a very slight decrease.

K -As was to be expected, the largest amount of increase fell to the miners. 93» great demand for coal and other minerals, partly owing to the war, and the jbigh prices realised, secured the miners regular employment at a high rate of sages. lie average increase for those iffected—and nearly all were affected ror&a out at about 4s 9d per week, which jives us an average increase of 8s per week for miners since 1897. Their total anottnt of increase per week for last year annes to £168,000, and rather more—snowog how large a proportion they gained wt of the total increase of £215,000 for til -workpeople. Again, it is natural that lie brisk trade in metal-work, partly due o the war, brings up the metal, engineerag, and ship-bunding trades to the second ilace in increase. The building and texQe trades show an advance, but nothing d compare with the above-named. They re even beaten by the agricultural laonrers, and that seems to us one of the lost surprising points in the whole report. lie wages of these labourers have been ' ;eadily rising since 1896, and last year for le first time no districts showed a decease. The rise per week in the vear as nearly £IO,OOO, and 281,262 labourers ere affected. This shows not only an crease of Bjd per head per week over as wages of the previous year, bnt, most tonishing of all, an absolute increase of 1,000 people affected. By far the greater imber of these were in the Eastern and idland counties, which are the principal in-growing counties of England. Can is possibly mean that we are going to ow corn and to a certain extent feed iselves again? Or has it any possible □section with the Government's doles to supporters? An interesting item, ough the number affected is but small, the increase of wages in the police ■ces. They number about 49,000 in eat Britain and nearly half of these (over ty-four per cent.) have received an in v ase of wages. oinonmiDg to an average Is a week. We cannot see any son for the reported slight redaction the wages of railwav servants, and, teed, Mr Llewellrn .Smith seems to ibt doubt whether the ficnres on which ias had to rely really establish a falling in the wage r j 'e. In spite of the que increase on the rrgregate of wages ongh the country, the rate has of course Ktined fairly stationary for the vast jority of the workpeople. It is enraging to re-1 thnt the number of se who have si onre.l an eight hours r was larger last rear than in any prens year frit 189?. wlien circumstances •e excep - ion,ii. XearK- 57.000 workers e also hnd their weekly hours decreased an nverase of four and a quarter is. Bnt in the mfnV nf all this proe we cannot overlook Mr Llewellvn ih's warning tart the oikl of 1900 w'as iilminating point, and that with the tent year a decrease of wages has set,

in. For the first tine since 1895 the net effect has been a fall amounting to nearly £30,000 per week. The'decline is most marked in the mining, iron and steel trade's, ■which recently showed the greatest rise. It may he that we have now turned backwards* for a time, and shall be compelled to face a succession of lean years after the fat. .

According to the "Motor News, the , smallest automobile yet constructed for the actual use of man is the property of one Chiquita, a Cuban dwarf. The car is an exact miniature of an electric victoria. Its wheels are 12in in diameter, and are fitted with l£in pneumatic tyres. The distance between step and ground is 4in, and from the seat to the ground Win. The cushions measure 14 bv B£in. The distance between wheel centres is 24in, while the track of the wheels is a like measurement. Tlie extraordinary vehicle" has a hood which, when put up, only reaches to the elbow of an ordinarv-sized man. According to the measurements given, the axle must be only 6in, while the step is only 4in above the ground. Mr John Habberton, the author of "Helen's Babies," relates in the "Literary Era" a storv of Foster's "Old Folks at Home." He says it is the most popular song in existence, and continues :—" It has been translated into all the languages of Europe, and also into some of Asia and the isles of the sea. The lines are poetic only in the sense of suggestion; thev are so simple and artless that 'it would seem that any school child could pen them and improve upon them, but they express the sentiment of every home-. sic£ man or woman that ever lived. Compared with the 'Old Folks at Home,' Kipling's ' Mandalay,' which has been said by some high authorities to be-the acme of home-sick expression, is a ' disgusting emulsion of beer and sensuality. There is an oft-told story of a regiment df troops, with pay overdue-four months,, that was overtaken by the paymaster just as it reached a camp near a great city in which everything was ' wide open.' Many of the men, with their pockets full of money, 'broke guard' and returned to camp in a condition prejudicial to good order and military discipline. The iguard themselves became untrustworthy, good men though they had been on the march and in battle; the sober members of the regiment strove unsuccessfully to restrain the uncontrollable, and the colonel gravitated between slaughter and suicide, when suddenly the leader of the band asked permission to try his hand on the, disturbing element. Grouping his musicians in the centre of the camp, he started ' The Old Folks at Home,' and played on unceasingly for half an hour, when the officer of the guard reported that the camp was entirely quiet, , even the most uproarious drunkards having wept themselves to sleep.