2 The following’ tabular statement classifies the schemes accord ing to the date of adoption, and shows the extent to which schemes started at various periods have survived. Date of Starting. Total N umber of Schemes. Schemes abandoned. Schemes still existing. Schemes as to which no recent particulars are available. Up to 1870 20 17 3 1871-1880 18 12 6 — 1881-1890 84 63 20 i 1891-1900 82 58 23 i 1901-1905 27 7 19 i 1906-1910 55 G 49 — 1911-1912 (seven months). 13 " 13 Total 299 163 133 3 It will be seen that 81 out of the 133 surviving schemes were started since 1900, and G2 since 1905. The number of workers under existing schemes who were entitled to share in profits at the end of 1911 (or in 1912, in the case of schemes started since 1911) was 57‘3 per cent, of the total number of workers in the firms where those schemes were in force. The average “ bonus,” or share in profits, in 1911 repre sented an addition to the wages of participants of 5'5 per cent, in the case of those firms who furnished particulars to the Department ; this was also the average for the whole period 1901 - 1911. There is a great diversity in the schemes as regards the form of bonus to workers. In about three-fifths of the schemes the bonus is paid in cash; this is especially the case with the older schemes. In a certain number of schemes the whole of the bonus is paid to a provident fund, or it is partly paid in cash and the remainder paid to a provident fund. A more common type of scheme, however, is that in which the whole or part of the bonus is retained for investment in the capital of the undertaking, the other part (where all is not so invested) being paid out in cash or retained on deposit with the employers for provident purposes. This capitalising of the bomis may perhaps be regarded as the characteristic feature of the more recent profit-sharing schemes, and is invariably found in the large and important group of gas works. Many industrial undertakings are, however, not capable of absorbing annual additions to capital, and success is in some cases only attained by keeping the capital account as low as possible.