25
The price of rice varied between 20% and 33% above the corresponding figures for 1936, but in 1937 the peak price for the year was reached in August as opposed to December in 1936. The sharp rise in price which occurred in the latter half of 1936 proved largely permanent. The absolute variation during the year (25%) was about the same as in 1936 (23%) but, as in 1937 the interval between the two was two months as compared with eleven months in 1936 (the minimum being prior in both cases), the change was more keenly felt. Figures are:
Per 100 catties. (average of 4 grades).
1937 June August Variation. $ 7.31 $ 9.16 25% 1936 February December $ 5.90 $ 7.27 23%AVERAGE RATES OF WAGES FOR LABOUR.
Building Trade:-
Locomotive Drivers $1.30 to $1.80 per day. Carpenters 0.80 1.30 Bricklayers. 0.80 1.30 Painters 0.80 1.30 Plasterers (including Shanghai Plasterers) 1.00 1.50 Scaffolders 1.00 1.50 Labourers (male) 0.60 0.80 (female) 0.40 0.50Working hours 9 per day. Time and a half paid for over-time. Free temporary sleeping quarters provided on the building site and communal messing at cheap rates.