- WHAT IS SPENT ON BREAD IN POOR FAMILIES.
[TO THE EDITOR OR THE "SPECTATOR."
you allow me a little space in support of my letter which appeared in the Spectator of October 31st? In your editorial comment you said that the best answer to it was the letter you published immediately below. Mr. Mat-son, the writer, quotes, on the authority of a girl in his night-school, the case of a Somerset-shire labourer whose wage of Ils, a week and bread bill of 58. 3d. are totally at variance with the .figures given by me, but entirely in harmony with the state- ment made in the Spectator's article the preceding week,—viz., that "the labourer spends half his wages on bread, and often more." The girl's statement runs as follows :—" Father always eats one small loaf a day,'—at 21d., i.e.. is. ald. a week ; 'mother and baby another,' is. 31-d.; the three thetweens ' eat two loaves together, 28. 71d." But will the figures bear closer in- spection? They are stated in round numbers of whole loaves, which in themselves give grounds for suspicion; but accepting them as strictly accurate, they point to an abnormal con- sumption of bread in this particular family, especially on the part of the baby, whose voracity is only equalled by its precocity. But probably the explanation is that lls, does not represent the average earnings of the labourer in question. Nowadays men will not work all the year round for such a miserable pittance. I recently took the trouble to inquire of a waggoner in this district what his wages were ; he replied
9s. a week " ; but on further cross-examination he admitted
that he received an additional lump sum of 217 in May, unless be drew it earlier by instalments. His average is thus 16s. a week, to which must be added "harvest-money." Doubt- less the case of the Somersetshire labourer, if investigated, would be found to be very similar. Even then wheat at 60s. a quarter would have a very serious effect on his bread bill, but it would not amount to a tax of 25 per cent. on his wages, which VMS the estimate made by the writer of the article in the Spectator of October 24th, and which I have -endeavoured to disprove.—I am, Sir, &c., G. RAINEY.
Ben Place, East Skirbeck, Boston.
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