There is not much waste of words with them. These facts are highly relevant to the Bill which we have before us because they are a general feature of the situation. This was their invariable food day after day. We were told that again they got bread and again a little cheese. Then we asked what they had for their high tea before they went to bed. I was told they took bread and a bit of cheese. I asked what they took to school for lunch. We were told they got bread and some cheese. The general conversation turned upon the food the children got before they went to school in the morning. There was a particular case of quite an average farm labourer-not at all an abnormal case-a man with four children-two at home. Members to the real condition which now characterises in a marked degree our agricultural population. I want, however, to bring the minds of hon. The height very often justifies the old joke that one has heard about the labourer who said that he was going to invite a friend to a meal, but as the ceiling was so low they would have to have flat fish. That, I say, is not an uncommon feature in any part of our own old rural England. The rooms generally are not those in which you can easily stand up. It is quite a common thing when you enter a farm labourer's house to find-certainly with people of the length of myself-considerable difficulty in entering. The other day I was taking a walk in the country with a parson, and I took the opportunity of suggesting to him that as we visited the various farm labourers he should lead the conversation so as to instruct me in the conditions in that part of the world-in which by the way I do not live. Members straight to the heart of the question, and dealing with the realities of the condition of the worker on the land. You have conditions of dire poverty which must be removed. The Bill which I now ask the House to give a Second Reading deals with a blot on the social state of rural England- probably the most beautiful country in the world-which I think we all admit ought to be removed. I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
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