Speaking at the annual dinner of the Bakewell Farmers' Club
on Monday, the Duke of Devonshire referred to the questions of rural depopulation and the dearth of satisfactory labourers. The housing difficulty, due to the considerable cost of erecting cottages that satisfied the requirements of the existing building by-laws, was one of the chief causes of the present unsatisfactory condition of the rural labour market. He accordingly welcomed the movement recently initiated to grapple with the problem of providing suitable cottages for labourers at a cost which would bring the rent down to a figure which labourers could afford to pay. Alluding to the forthcoming Cheap Cottages Exhibition organised by the County Gentleman. and the Garden City Company, at which builders and architects would be invited to exhibit cottages for the proper accommodation of agricultural labourers and their families at a reasonable cost, and through which means it was hoped to show that suitable cottages could be built for 2150, the Duke remarked that, in view of the need of checking the rural exodus and providing an adequate supply of labour, it was a scheme which deserved the sym- pathy and the attention of the entire agricultural community. The movement, he added, was now in the hands of practical men, and he should watch the results with very great interest.
Bank Rate, 3 per cent.
Consols (2f per cent.) were on Friday 871.
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