§ Mr. INGLEBYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, having regard to the fact that rates of payment to farm labourers on the poorer arable lands range from 12s. a week or thereabouts in the winter months to 17s. per week or thereabouts at hoeing time, when labourers are paid by the piece, and may reach 50s. and upwards per week at harvest time when they are paid a fixed sum for the harvest, he will provide in the Bill for farmers averaging their rates of wages for insurance purposes and so avoid causing any disturbance in the prevailing system of payment?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI think any system of averaging would be open to objection as being far more complicated than the system contemplated in the Bill.
§ Sir RANDOLF BAKERWhen the labourer is getting 12s. or 14s. a week, 1676 does the employer pay 4d. and the men 3d., and is it the case that when his wages increase the employer pays 3d. and the men 4d.?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEYes. The same number of stamps appears each week on the card: the adjustment is between employer and employed. The pay will have to be according to the wages for each particular week. That is why the system will be perfectly simple. For any given week when the wages are over 2s. 6d. a day the employer would have to pay 4d. for the week's work. On the other hand, when the wages fall below that, the employer will have to put the initial stamp on himself. It will be according to the wage for that particular week.
§ Mr. BAIRDDoes that ratio apply to the man under twenty-one. Does not the charge come in when the person is over twenty-one?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEYes, that is so.