Wages paid per week to laborers of every class-Continued.

*Per day.

2 67

2 67

2 67

3 16

3 76

3 28

96

4 86

3 26

*48

24 32

43 79

29 16

56

2 43

2.88

60

3.36

Miners are paid at so much per ton turned out, and turn out, on an average, about five tons of coal per day.

Weavers are paid by the piece, and those who are able to earn $4.86 per week are experts, and use two looms, and those who receive only 96 cents per week are beginners.

NOTE.-Pound sterling estimated at $4.86; shilling, at 24 cents; penny, at 2 cents.

There has been no change in the cost of living since the last labor circular was issued, in 1878; the cost of living per day to each person averages from 20 to 24 cents. Their food consists chiefly of oat-meal porridge, bread, cheese, potatoes, meat about three times per week, and tea, all of the cheapest kind; fuel forms but a small item in their house

hold expenses, owing to their being inured to cold from childhood, and a man and wife with two or three children usually occupy but one room, for which they pay a yearly rent of from $12 to $13, while a family of six or eight grown people are often crowded into two small rooms, for which they pay from 817 to $18 per annum.

PAST AND PRESENT RATES OF WAGES.

There has been no perceptible change in the rates of wages as at present paid, and herein stated, for many years. The dull trade existing in the early part of 1878 threatened a reduction, but the active demand from the United States for the textile fabrics manufactured in this district, which occurred in the latter part of that year, and has continued ever since, brought prosperity to all classes of people and obviated the necessity for a reduction in wages.

HABITS OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

The working people of this district are, as a whole, steady, industrious, orderly, and temperate, slow in their movements, and in competition with American workmen would be left far behind in quantity, as well as quality, of their work. They are religiously inclined, and very regular in attending church twice every Sabbath; are fond of amusements, and enjoy themselves on their holidays with dancing, playing various Scotch games, and making excursions. They are very economical in their household expenses, but what is saved in that way is generally spent by the young men for amusements, and by the young women for dress, of which they are very fond, and it is only some of the older and more prudent ones that manage to lay by something for a rainy day.

FEELING EXISTING BETWEEN EMPLOYÉ AND EMPLOYER.

As far as I am able to judge, the feeling which prevails between the employé and employer is one of mutual indifference; the only apparent interest that they take in each other's welfare is such as is prompted by self-interest.

WAGES-WHEN AND HOW PAID.

Domestic servants receive their pay every six months. Mechanics, miners, factory employés, and all others every two weeks. All are paid in gold and silver and are free to purchase whatever they choose and wherever they please.

GENERAL CONDITION OF THE WORKING PEOPLE.

This is termed a country district and the population is almost entirely composed of working people, who are engaged in the manufacture of household napery, and floor oil-cloth, coal-mining and farming. Their houses are, on the whole, considered comfortable; their food, though plain, is wholesome; their clothing is of good, warm material, and they are generally strong and healthy, and apparently are so well satisfied with their condition that, with the exception of a few of the more ambitious, they have no desire to leave their native home. The most of them can read and write, and the present compulsory-education law is being strictly enforced, so that in future all will have a common-school education, while morally they rank high in comparison with the working classes of the large cities. In conclusion it may be said that the working people of this district are comfortable, contented, and happy. H. RAY MYERS, Commercial Agent.

UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL AGENCY,

Dunfermline, June 10, 1883.

IRELAND.

CORK.

REPORTED BY CONSUL PIATT.

PART I.-MALE LABOR.

RATES OF WAGES.

In obedience to instructions in the labor circular issued by the Department of State, dated February 15th last, I return herewith the various forms accompanying that circular, carefully filled up so far as they apply to this district, only omitting two, the material for which I have been informed by the consul-general will be obtained from the official records in London. Although agriculture is the chief occupa tion of the people in the South of Ireland, it will be seen that this district is not without many and various manufacturing and other industries. There are in and in the vicinity of the several cities and towns throughout the province of Munster many large woolen factories, tanneries, iron foundries, distilleries, breweries, flour mills, &c. Several of these, as for example, the Blarney Woolen Mills of Messrs. Martin Mahony & Bros., near Cork, have been long established and celebrated, and employ many male and female workmen. (Messrs. Mahony & Bros. have from 750 to 800 employés.) At Passage West and Rushbrook, in Cork Harbor, there are large ship-building docks, where some years ago many iron steamships and wooden vessels were constructed, but the building of vessels has greatly fallen off within the last five or six years, and repairs to shipping, both steam and sail, is now almost the only work carried on there. The Government Naval Extension Works at Haulbowline, also in Cork Harbor, give employment to three or four hundred men-convict labor-which was formerly, up to 1883, partly employed at these works, from Spike Island, the Government prison, nearly adjacent-being no longer availed of by the Government, the convicts having been all transferred to other prisons throughout the country, and the island on which they were confined occupied for an army garrison. At Ballincollig, a few miles west of Cork, are extensive powder mills, a private enterprise, which for years past has been encouraged and patronized by the Government. Bacon-curing is an important industry at Cork and elsewhere in the province. The land is much devoted to dairy purposes, a large portion of the best farms being pasture or grazing lands. Great numbers of live stock, as I recently reported, are shipped to England and Scotland, and butter, the manufacture of which is one of the most prominent industries, and gives employment to many persons, is exported in large quantities to the English and foreign markets. Although the rates of wages given for Cork may fairly be held to apply to the district at large, there will doubtless be some slight differences in the various employments between those of the capital city and smaller towns and villages throughout the province, as will be seen from the forms which I inclose filled up by W. H. Farrell, esq., the consular agent at Waterford. The particulars in which, he informs me, have been obtained from the most reliable sources. In transmitting these Mr. Farrell writes: "Bacon-curing is an industry carried on here to which no allusion has been made in any of the forms.

There are five curing establishments here, and I believe Waterford is considered first in Ireland as regards this industry. Two of the principal establishments exported about 50,000 bales each, or nearly that number, last year, the estimated value of which would be about £240,000 ($1,167,960). The wages paid in these establishments vary from $3.65 to $7.30 per week, each man being paid on the quantity of work he does. I may say that bacon-curing is the principal industry of Waterford. There are no ship-building yards, neither wood nor iron. Carpenters' wages for repairing vessels are $1.33 per day of ten hours. There are three flour and one flax and jute mill, with two breweries."

COST OF LIVING.

The accompanying statement shows the retail prices of various articles, including the necessaries of life, at Cork. The working classes here, as a general rule, it may be safely said, do not include among their nec essaries of life more than a very few of the articles mentioned. Bread, with tea or coffee, sugar, a little milk (except in the country, where it may be had at a sufficiently low rate), with potatoes, cabbage, bacon, fish, and cheap soup, and other meats occasionally-rarely any good beef or mutton-make up their chief food. Few of the articles in the list given are lower in price, than, for example, in Ohio. Most of the necessaries of life, from an American or Irish standpoint, even potatoes, are higher-several much higher-than is usual, I think, in our Western States. Clothing is comparatively low, but only the better class of clothing notably lower than in our country. Household furniture, glassware, and china excepted, is higher-priced than in the United States, and the cheaper grades are inferior in quality to the low-priced wooden furniture manufactured, for example, at Cincinnati. House-rents are low or high, according to the class of house or its situation; seldom lower, I believe, than in country towns and the country proper in the United States. The rent of land is high, being for good farming or dairy land, from $7.50 to $15 per acre.

PRESENT RATES OF WAGES AND THOSE OF 1878.

Although, since 1878, the prices of the necessaries of life have increased considerably, there is no very marked change in the rates of wages paid to artisans and laborers in towns and cities since that year; but the early closing of factories and machine-shops, ship building yards, and other large establishments was not then the rule as now. Since 1878 these, as a rule, are closed at 2 p. m. on Saturdays, the employés working during the usual dinner hour, from 1 to 2, thus reducing the number of hours worked during the week from sixty to fifty-six.

HABITS OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

The habits of the working classes when they have regular employment are generally good. They give, I am assured, a fair day's work for what, considering the comparatively high price required for rent and the necessaries of life, should seldom seem an excessive day's wages. These wages make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to save anything even if the workmen be strongly inclined; but, unfortunately, too large a proportion of their wages-especially of mechanics or laborers irregularly employed--is spent for the temporary consolation of a hard fortune, drink.

FEELING BETWEEN EMPLOYÉ AND EMPLOYER.

The feeling prevailing between employé and employer, though in some branches of trade too frequently strained, if not hostile, appears to be generally good, and this is proved by the fact that in nearly all large establishments are to be found employés of different grades whose parents worked for the same or earlier members of the same firm, and who, themselves, never worked in any other establishment; and I am informed that there are to be found many old employés pensioned off from the several factories, breweries, distilleries, and other leading concerns in the various cities and towns throughout the district.

THE ORGANIZED CONDITION OF LABOR.

Under this head it may be stated that there are various trades unions in Cork and elsewhere throughout the district, each of which is exclusively for the benefit of the trades so united, the chief object in view being, in each union, to see that none of its members work in shops where men not belonging to the society are employed. These trades unions do not affect trade or capital appreciably, and there are no counter organizations of capital opposed to them, many of the leading builders, architects, and others requiring the services of the trades supporting their unions.

THE PREVALENCY OF STRIKES-ARBITRATION.

Strikes are of very rare occurrence in this district. Since 1878 but two have occurred in Cork, both of which were settled without arbitration, the men on strike being the sufferers. The bakers in 1882 struck against working at night, and remained out for over two months. The employers imported men gradually from other parts of the country, who took the places of the strikers, and the end was that numbers of the men on strike, after the funds of their society were exhausted, had to become paupers chargeable to the public; others emigrated, and, finally, the rest went back to work on the original terms. Again, in the present year, the ship carpenters at Passage West went on strike, claiming, as reason, the discharge of a foreman employed at the docks. They remained out two weeks and then went to work again, there being no sympathy with them from the other trades of the town. Their credit was stopped, and necessity compelled them to resume work, though their aim was not achieved. Strikes are foreign to Ireland; such as occur do not seem to have any marked effect on the advancement of labor.

FREEDOM TO PURCHASE NECESSARIES OF LIFE-TIME OF PAYMENT OF WAGES AND KIND OF CURRENCY IN WHICH MADE.

The employés throughout this district are at liberty to purchase the necessaries of life where they please, and there are no conditions imposed on them in this respect by their employers. The weekly laborer is paid generally on Saturdays at 2 p. m., in gold, silver, or current banknotes. The monthly employé is paid at the close of each month. Household servants, who, in lieu of board, often receive as "board wages" a sum of from $1.46 to $1.70 weekly, in addition to the regular wages paid at the end of the month, are paid this allowance usually at the beginning of each week in advance.