ABSTRACT
The following is the statement of one who appeared to me to be both a truthful and a just man. His wife was a superior woman, and being present at his homewhere the information was obtained-she acted as a check upon him, even if he had been disposed to lean either to master or workman. The man's house was comfortably furnished, evidently owing to the greater prudence of his wife, for I have found it is a rule that when the wife is cleanly and thrifty, the husband is always a higher class man:
"I have been a lumper nine years. Prices are not so good now as when I first knew the business. We got 4s. 6d. a day then; that is, the old hands did. In a year after it fell to 4s. Work was slack, and so employers could get men to work at their own prices. Three or four years back price fell to 3s. 6d. a day." My informant then repeated what I had formerly heard, attributing this further decrease to the great influx of Irish labourers, owing to the distress in Ireland, and their willingness to work for any wages whatever, which enables employers to get the old hands on easier terms.
