§ * MR. O'GRADYI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the men at work under the Leeds Distress Committee, upon the a forestation scheme in the Washburn Valley, have deducted from their wages 1s. 6d. for boots and tobacco and 9s. per week for food, leaving them 9s. 6d. per week for the upkeep of their families; that during the winter, on several occasions, when the men could only work two or three days per week owing to inclement weather, deductions from their wages were made; whether he is aware of the conditions under which the men are required to work; whether he has official information showing that 293 men were offered employment, 139 accepted, 102 only commenced work, fifty-six threw it up very soon after, and at present there are only forty-six out of the 293 who were offered employment engaged upon the forestry work; whether, seeing that the accommodation is limited to forty-eight men only, he will say whether the arrangements are the result of instructions from the Local Government Board or the Leeds Distress Committee; and whether steps will be taken so to amplify the arrangements as to give the experiment a chance of success.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI have made inquiry on this subject, and am informed that the registered unemployed engaged upon the work referred to receive wages at the rate of 20s. per week of forty-eight hours, that certain deductions are made for boots and railway fares, and that 663 there is an allowance of 6d. per week for tobacco or pocket money. The distress committee, in conjunction with the town council, have made arrangements for the board and lodging of such of the men as desire it, not exceeding forty-eight, in a wooden building in Washburn Valley. If a man elects to board himself he can do so, or he can board with the keeper of the building at 9s. 6d. for board and lodging from Monday morning to Saturday at mid-day, or 11s. for the full week. The men may arrange for board and lodging elsewhere, subject to the terms of the arrangement being communicated to the distress committee. Some of them adopt this course. The wages are only paid for time worked, but between 2nd January and 13th March there were only seventeen hours during which the work was stopped on account of inclement weather; but it is stated that on many occasions a large proportion of the men refused to work whilst others worked full time. The arrangements were made by the distress committee and were considered to be sufficient to meet all reasonable requirements.
§ MR. O'GRADYMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he has received a Report from a committee of the ratepayers on the subject, and whether he is aware that the men have to walk seventeen miles to and from their work; whether he is aware that it is a celibate colony; and whether he will allow the men the privilege which is granted to the men at the Hollesley Bay Colony to return home at least once a month free of railway fares.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI have investigated the subject on the spot, and, bearing in mind that these are relief works, I have come to the conclusion that on the point neither of treatment, of accommodation nor of food have the men any more to complain of than the ordinary navvy or ordinary labourer in that particular district would have to encounter if he were not working on relief works.
§ MR. O'GRADYIs it not a fact that the chairman of the distress committee who is responsible for carrying on the experiment once said that he would rather sweep the streets than accept work under the distress committee on the terms which obtained?
§ MR. JOHN BURNSIn answer to that I think I had better quote the observations of Mr. Herbert Brown, who is the chairman of the distress committee. He is reported to have said—"Several have returned to the city at the end of the first week, a few have stayed only a day and then disappeared. Moreover, it has frequently happened that men on the spot have deliberately refused to turn out to work. They have put their hand out of the door, and feeling it rather cold have sat round the stove all day." As to the question of food the same gentleman says:—"The men have no fault to find with the food or accommodation. They have bacon for breakfast; they are supplied with a light luncheon to take out with them to eat at noon, and on their return at five or six o'clock they have a substantial meal provided of meat and potatoes."
§ MR. O'GRADYIs it not a fact that the men are only supplied with eight ounces of food between the time they go out in the morning to the time they return in the evening; is it not a fact that there is only accommodation for forty-eight men, of whom forty-six have been working regularly, and that the men have on wet days gone back to their quarters with wet clothes, and having no opportunity to dry them, have had to go out to their work next day with them still wet?
§ MR. JOHN BURNSThe best authority on the matter of food is the buxom lady who cooks it. She said when interviewed—"They ought not to be delicate for they eat plenty. They have eaten eighty-six lbs. of butter this last month. I bake over twenty stone of bread every week, and look here (opening one of the largest ovens) here is thirty-six lbs. of beef, and there is seventeen lbs. more stewing in that big pan, and I will be surprised if there is a scrap left after to-morrow's dinner. Why those chaps have appetites like horses, and I like to see it, if they would only waken up."
§ MR. LUNDON (Limerick, E.)I would like to know if the bacon supplied for breakfast is obtained from the firm of O'Mara & Co., Limerick.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSIf it is, I have not the least doubt that it is of its usual excellent quality
§ MR. LUNDONIt is the best in the world.
§ Several other hon. Members rose to put questions, but,
§ * MR. SPEAKERI think notice should be given of any further Questions.