§ MR. FIELDTo ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing, the President of the Board of Agriculture, if the labourers, who are a special class of men, employed in the Ordnance Survey 169 will be granted a minimum wage of 24s. a week; and if he will take into consideration the expense these men entail in the cost of living, having to move frequently from place to place.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) My hon. friend apparently refers to the unskilled labourers employed with surveyors and others engaged in the field duties of the Ordnance Survey. These labourers are no more a special class of men than are other labourers, who, with no previous experience at a particular kind of labour, have to get used to the work required of them. There seems to be no need to introduce the minimum wage suggested, as there is generally no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of hands at the present wages, which therefore are presumably adequate to meet the fluctuations in the cost of living referred to in the last part of the Question.