INTRODUCTION.

39

has  an  even  larger  business,  and  acts  as  the
hanker  of  the  smaller  stores  throughout  the
country.  The  first  named  society  has  been  also  the
occasion  of  an  amendment  in  the  Inland  Revenue
Acts  (see  Part  III.,  post),  by  which  societies
having  limited  shares  and  dealing  with  the  public
are  exempted  from  the  arrangement  made  by
section  11  (4)  of  the  Industrial  and  Provident
Societies  Act,  1876,  for  enforcing  the  liability  to
income  tax  against  the  member  directly  instead
of  through  the  society.
74.  An  Industrial  and  Provident  (frequently
called  “  Co-operative  ”)  Society  is  defined  by  the
Act  to  be  a  society  for  carrying  on  any  labour,
trade,  or  handicraft,  including  the  buying  and
selling  of  land  and  the  business  of  banking,  and
the  interest  of  any  member  in  the  shares  (or
funds)  of  such  a  society  is  limited  to  £200.  The
shares  may  be  either  all  withdrawable  or  all
transferable,  or  some  shares  may  be  transferable
and  others  withdrawable;  but  no  society  carrying ­
  on  the  business  of  banking  may  have  any
withdrawable  capital.  A  society  may,  however,
take  deposits  of  not  more  than  5.?.  in  any  one
sum,  nor  more  than  £20  from  any  one  person,
without  being  deemed  to  be  carrying  on  the  business ­
  of  banking.  A  society  for  banking  must
keep  a  half-yearly  statement  of  its  funds  always
hung  up  at  every  place  where  it  carries  on
business.
75.  The  number  of  Industrial  and  Provident
Societies  recorded  as  in  existence  in  the  last
Report  of  the  Chief  Registrar  was  1,028,  of