Monday, May 31, 2004

100 years ago: Under the auspices of the Friends' Social Service Committee, the second of two lectures on The Unemployed Problem was delivered in the Friends' Meeting House in York. The speaker, Mr Percy Alden, the Honorary Warden of Mansfield House University Settlement, who was for some years secretary to the Mansion House Committee, said the unemployed problem had first become acute in the 16th century. At a very moderate estimate there were eight per cent of all grades of work out of employment. One great remedy, he said, would be to place men who were once agricultural labourers back on the land, or another way to help the unemployed would be the reclamation of waste land. But at present the most likely direction in which they might look for employment was in afforestation. He thought there was no doubt that some steps would have to be taken towards reducing the hours of labour.

50 years ago: To the average housewife, chicken was a comparative stranger, a special dish reserved for special occasions, but the time may not be so very far away when chicken meat would take a permanent place on every family's regular menu. Recently Mr Nobody talked with a northern poultry breeder who was convinced of this. His plan, at the time, was to produce a chicken which can be offered to the housewife for ten shillings. He was not on his own, as the National Egg and Poultry Promotion Committee, assisted by the National Farmers' Union, planned to feed 6,000 people on barbecued chicken at Blackpool, to introduce this novelty to the public.

10 years ago: Nestle, owner of Rowntree in York, was to take part in the Great British Milk Shake-Up. The company bought all milk for its products, including chocolate produced at its York factory, from the Milk Marketing Board, the statutory body which had bought and sold milk from farmers since 1933. Now the board was being scrapped as a result of national and European competition rules, Nestle intended to buy milk direct from dairy farmers.

Updated: 09:28 Monday, May 31, 2004