Two of the Carnarvonshire quarries, placed at opposite ends of the same hill, at a distance of 4 miles, employ, respectively, 2,809 and 2,757 men. The first is the Penrhyn quarry, probably the largest in the world, owned by Lord Penrhyn, and situated 5 miles from Bangor and the Menai Straits; the other, the Dinorwie quarries, at Llanberris, 4 miles south of the Penrhyn quarry, owned by G. W. Duff Assheton Smith, esq. The bulk of the Merionethshire quarries, employing over 3,881 men, are in the Festiniog district.

The weekly earnings of quarrymen at the Penrhyn quarry, where the highest wages are paid, are at present as follows:

The house-rent paid by quarrymen ranges from $19.44 to $38.88 a year. Most of the men in the Penrhyn quarry live in houses provided by Lord Penrhyn at a rent of from $14.58 to $19.44 a year; there is always a small garden attached to these.

Quarrymen are commonly said to "live on tea." Their breakfast consists of tea and bread and butter; they take tea and bread and butter at the quarry, and too many of them have no more than tea and bread and butter again after coming home at 6 in the evening, and for supper many of them make the addition of potatoes to their 6 o'clock meal, some bacon, and a smaller number, a very small number, fresh meat. Fresh meat is as a rule reserved till Sundays. It is too true that tea and bread and butter are the staple articles of diet. Strangers visiting the quarries have described the nien as being shorter, narrowerchested, more unhealthy-looking, and in every way physically inferior to other classes of artisans. Although this inferiority is denied by competent judges, it is certain that the men injure themselves by their system of diet, and that healthy and robust manhood is not conspicuous amongst them.

The quarryman spends much of his leisure time in reading-he is a great theological reader-and in fishing with the rod; but the universal occupation off work is singing or playing; pianos and harmoniums are numerously scattered among the cottages, and the men have excellent voices. At the national Eisteddfod held at Cardiff last year the chief prize was awarded to the choir, consisting of two hundred voices, from the Peurhyn quarry. Concerts, and most commonly in aid of some fellow-workman disabled by accident or disease, are constantly held in the neighborhood of quarries.

There is probably the usual proportion of spendthrifts among quarrymen; but, on the whole, they are very exceptionally saving and provident. Not a few of them are worth $4,860 or $7,290; they "buy farms, build houses, and invest money in banking, shipping, and other branches of business that pay them high interest," is an account given of them by one of themselves who has risen to be a thriving manager of a quarry, The men take great interest in politics, and have deep religious tendencies: their chapels are very numerous, well filled, and most regularly attended. Fondness for good clothes is a very certain characteristic, and the prime cleanliness of a quarryman's cot does not escape the most casual and superficial observer.

MINERS AND THE COAL TRADE.

With the exception of the Clyde basin the South Wales coal-field is the largest in the United Kingdom. It extends from east to west for

73 mies, with a transverse diameter from north to south of something like 16 miles. It is estimated that between 32,000,000,000 and 33,000,000,000 tons of coal is still available for future use in this district. The number of collieries in operation within this coal-field is in the neighborhood of 460; about 360 being situated in Glamorganshire, 103 in Monmouthshire, and the remainder in Carmarthenshire, Breconshire, and Pembrokeshire. It is computed that 70,000 men are engaged at this moment in and about these collieries. But in order to understand the position of the miner and his relationship to the coal owner it is necessary to take a retrospective view.

Twelve years ago, or in 1872, the coal trade reached the high-water mark of prosperity, and the colliers participated largely, if not equitably, in the fabulous profits of that time. But towards the close of the following year a period of depression set in. Wages fluctuated with a downward tendency until, at length, in 1875, the miners of South Wales came out on strike against a reduction of 10 per cent. in their wages, and in the face of a falling market. This struggle between capital and labor lasted five months, involving a loss in wages to the South Wales district, as stated by Lord Aberdare, of the stupendous sum of $15,000,000. At the end of that time the representatives of the men agreed with the representative of the owners to accept wages at a rate 12 per cent. less than that which they were earning when the strike began. The terms of the agreement provided that the wages adopted should continue in force for three months, ending with August, 1875, when the rate should be fixed by a joint committee composed of six employers and six workmen, based upon the selling price of coal. The strike referred to was attended by sufferings and privations to the verge of starvation, as well as the actual money loss to the wage earning classes referred to. But out of the conflict the principle of arbitration emerged, and since the year 1875 there has been no general strike or lock-out in this district.

Wages in the coal trade have for years been governed by equitable ar rangements by the sliding scale so generally applied at collieries to fix the rate of wages. The existing scale, which is in operation by virtue of a memorandum of agreement between representatives of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Collieries Owners' Association, and the authorized representative of the workmen employed at collieries of the members of the association is administered by the joint sliding scale committee, on which eight representatives of employers and a like number of workmen sit. An annual output of about 11,500,000 tons of coal is thus effected, the association comprising fifty-two firms of proprietors, and one hundred and seventy pits. The chairman of the sliding scale committee is Mr. W. T. Lewis (employer); vice-chairman, Mr. Abraham (workmen's representative); the employers' secretary being Mr. W. Gascoyne Dalziel, son of the late Mr. Alexander Dalziel, the previous secretary; and the workmen's secretary is Mr. T. W. Job. Wages are regulated by a sliding scale based upon the average net selling price of coal as ascertained by the appointed and representative accountants at their examination, once in every four months, of the coal owners' books. The standard of wages upon which advances or reductions must be made are the several rates actually paid at the respective collieries for the month of December, 1879, such wages being equivalent to a standard net selling price realized from all the collieries of the association at $1.86, and between $1.86 and $1.94 per ton. The average net prices of coal are taken as for large colliery-screened coal delivered free on board at Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea. For coal sold into wagons at the col

lieries, the equivalent net prices at the ordinary port of shipment are taken in calculating the selling price. There is no maximum or minimum in the scale of wages under this agreement. Advances or reductions are effected at the rate of 25 per cent. upon the standard wage rate for every 8 cents in the selling price of coal per ton. As a fact, no reductions have been made in wages governed by this scale. The advances since 1880 have been as follows:

This, therefore, represents a total of 174 per cent. above the standard prices of December, 1879. Of the employers' association itself, Mr. W. T. Lewis is chairman, Mr. Edward Jones (Varteg) vice chairman, Mr. W. Simons (Merthyr) solicitor, and Mr. Gascoyne Dalziel (Cardiff) secretary. The proprietors of the Ocean and Ferndale collieries, who were at one time members of this association, have recently adopted sliding scales of their own, taking different bases for the calculation of the standard. But the hours of labor are identical at all the pits, viz, nine hours from bank. The system of timbering or securing the ceiling from falling upon the workmen differs in South Wales from the practice in the north of England. There men are specially engaged in that work, and the hewers have nothing to do with the propping and securing of the ceiling. In South Wales, however, the colliers themselves do this class of work, and I understand them to be experts at it. The proportion of time devoted to this and other necessary labor is about equal to the time employed at face of work, that is to say, nine hours of hewing would be succeeded by nine hours of clearing away and preparation for more dead working.

Wages paid in and in connection with coal mines in Monmouthshire.

*Dead work is preparing for the actual cutting of the coal, that is to say, making stalls, headings, &c., to get at the coal, and is carried on whenever required, night or day; but the dead work, as a rule, alternates with the coal-cutting about every nine hours continuously.

THE IRON TRADE.

The manufactured-iron trade is one of the great industries of South Wales. It ranks next to the coal trade in importance and in number of men employed. It gives direct employment to about fifty thousand men. The great ironmasters of this district are turning their attention towards steel as a ship-building material. The Landore Siemens Steel Company, situated at Landore, near Swansea, have been manufacturing steel on the Siemens process for several years. And the celebrated

Cyfarth iron-works, which have been closed since the year 1875, have recently been converted into steel works under the masterly supervision of Mr. Edward Williams, of Stockton-on-Tees. Everything indicates that South Wales has before it a great future in the manufacture of rails and ship-plates.

I have already commented upon the habits and economic position of the men employed at these works, and shall therefore content myself now with submitting the following tables showing their earnings.

Wages paid per week of fifty-four hours in foundries, machine shops, and iron works.

As a rule the men are sober, steady, and intelligent.

WAGES IN THE TINPLATE TRADE.

The tinplate trade is an important industry in South Wales and Monmouthshire. The exports for the year 1880 amounted to 217,699 tous, valued at $2,617,727.12. This industry affords employment to over six thousand persons, and the firm of Pontymister Works, near Newport (Mon.), have kindly supplied answers to questions corresponding with those submitted by the Department. These answers are pointed and valuable, and are reproduced in their integrity, the money tables alone being converted. This firm has also supplied a table of wages paid at the present time, together with those paid in 1879, for the purpose of comparison. A glance at these figures will show that wages have advanced in the majority of cases during the last five years. It is clear that, so for as the workers in the tinplate industry are concerned, their position has improved substantially since 1879.