§ MR. JOHN WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his Department received a letter from the Postmaster-General dated 22nd August, 1905, requesting the Board of Trade to make inquiries regarding the cost of living in the various towns of the country, with a view of re-classifying the rates of pay for sorting clerks, telegraphists, and postmen; whether, by a further letter, dated 17th September, 1905, the Postmaster-General expressly asked that the rents given should include rates, and that it was also stipulated that only these localities in the different towns should be selected for comparison which were inhabited by persons drawn from the same classes as sorting clerks and postmen; and whether he will name the streets so selected by the Board of Trade for inquiry as suitable for sorting clerks and postmen in the postal district of Stoke-on-Trent.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe investigations of the Board of Trade were undertaken in order to ascertain particulars of the cost of living of the working classes in certain towns in such manner as would enable comparison to be made between one town and another. It was not possible to assume that any particular kind of tenement was occupied mainly by a particular grade of workmen, and the inquiry was, therefore, devoted to obtaining as much information as possible as to rents paid by workpeople for similar accommodation in the different towns selected, and not to the amounts expended on rents by persons of a particular class living in selected streets. In all cases, rents furnished by the Board of Trade to the Post Office included rates.