§ Sir HENRY HAVELOCK-ALLANasked the Secretary to the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the combined effect of the increase of wages and the increase in the cost of living in the Rhenish-West-phalian district has been to make the miners in that area 10⅓ per cent. worse off than they were in 1907; and whether he has any figures to show to what extent the rise in miners' wages in England and Wales during the last six months has been prejudiced by an increase in the cost of living?
Mr. BUXTONBetween 1907 and 1911 the average daily wages of coal miners in
379Wthe Dortmund district of Rhenish-West-phalia fell from 4s. 9¼d. to 4s. 7¼d. In the same period retail food prices rose by 10.7 per cent. according to the statistics relating to Prussia as a whole. During the last six months the net increase on "standard" of miners' wages in England and Wales has been 10 per cent. in the federated districts, 7½ per cent. in Northumberland and Durham, and 6¼ per cent. in South Wales. During the same six months the level of retail food prices remained practically stationary.