§ Mr. STRANGERasked the Minister of Agriculture whether his attention has been called to the fact that in the home counties farm labourers, married and having children, are at the present time being paid 20s. a week, with a deduction from that figure for the use of a cottage; and whether he is prepared to take immediate steps to secure an adequate minimum wage pending the awards of the agricultural wages boards, the machinery for constituting which boards has not yet been arranged?
§ Mr. BUXTONMy attention has been called to the deplorable level to which farm wages have fallen in certain cases, and I hope to be able to place the Government's proposals for the better regulation of agricultural wages before the House at a very early date. I trust that the interval before the new machinery becomes operative will be so short as to make it unnecessary to complicate the matter by taking immediate steps on the lines suggested, which could not be effective without legislation.