WHAT IS SPENT ON BREAD IN POOR FAMILIES. [To THY
EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' Stn,—Knowing how anxious you are that your paper should supply accurate information to your readers, I venture to ask you space for a short letter. In a letter in your issue of October 31st it is stated that the wage of an agricultural labourer in Somersetshire is lls, a week. It would be interesting to know how this figure is arrived at ; probably it is only the nominal wage. The fairest way to estimate the real wage is to take the whole earnings during a year and strike a weekly average. If this is done, I think it will be found, in the Eastern Counties at any rate, that the average wage of the labourer ranges from 14s. to 18s. per week, and that is putting it rather below than above the mark. It is really considerably higher, because the labourer, as a, rule, gets his cottage and garden for a very small rent. It will probably be agreed that an average cottage will cost 2150 to build ; 5 per cent. on that sum will be 27 108., or, say, 3s. a week. The labourer rarely pays more than is. to is. 6d. a week as rent in country districts, and where this is the case the balance of 2s. or is. 6d. should be added in reckoning his wage. If this is done, the average wage of the labourer will be brought up to 16s. to 20s. a week. The agitator is BO fond of holding up the landlords and farmers as inhuman monsters and marauders—though in what respect they differ from other manufacturers I fail to see— that it is important that the public should know the truth.—
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