Rise of wages in collieries.
Other reasons for the rise in the price of coal have been urged, and among these more especially the reduction in the hours of labour, and the great advance of wages. The advance in the wages paid to miners is in truth extraordinary. In a large colliery, in which I have an interest, I will give the advance in the weekly wages of some of the principal trades. The weekly wages of hewers in 1869 were 24s. 5d.; they have risen in 1873 to 48s. 9d. The wages of timbermen in 1863 were 25s.; in 1873 they are 53s. 4d. Haulers, in 1869, 20s.; in 1873, 31s. 6d. Landers, in 1869, 21s.; in 1873, 36s. 9d. Labourers in 1869, 15s.; in 1873, 24s. a week. The average wages of all the men employed were 20s. 11d. for 1869, as compared with an average of 36s. 8d. per week in 1873.
A similar rise of wages has been established in other parts of the country, of which I have no personal knowledge. Wages have risen, since 1870, 48 per cent. in Northumberland, and 50 per cent. in Durham. The requirements of the Mines Regulation Act have involved an additional expenditure, estimated by some authorities at 12½ per cent. upon the cost of production. It was estimated by Mr. Pease that the total cost of working, in the collieries with which he was connected, had increased 50 per cent. between 1870 and 1872. Mr. A. Macdonald, the president of the Miners’ National Association, confirming the opinion of Mr. Pease, estimated that the cost of getting coal in Northumberland had increased, between 1868 and 1872–73, from 60 to 65 per cent., while the selling price had risen 120 per cent.