28 
IX.—PRIVATE FIRMS AND COMPANIES. 
which they are employed, an example may be found in the scheme 
which has been in force since 1887 on the Home Farm of Lady 
Wantage (about 5,000 acres lying between Wantage and Hendred, 
Berks). 
The plan adopted is to pay rent, interest at 5 per cent, on 
capital, rates and taxes, purchase of stock and other working 
expenses, and wages, and then to allot a portion of the surplus 
balance as the share of the employees, the remaining profits going 
to their employer. For the purposes of the profit-sharing scheme 
the profits are calculated on the working, not of a single year, but 
of a series of years. Thus, in those years in which profits are 
made, the share of the employees is partly paid over to them at 
once, partly credited to a reserve fund which is available for the 
payment of a bonus, if, say once in every four years, a bad year 
occurs in which no profits are earned. The net balance of profit 
earned in the series of years being thus ascertained, the losses 
made in the bad years being deducted from the profits made in. 
the good years, one quarter of such net balance goes to the 
employees. The accounts of the farm are audited by a 
firm of accountants, and the certified balance-sheet can 
be seen by any employee. “ The bonus is distributed 
in shares of so many shillings each, the farm manager 
getting at the rate of ten shares to one, the ordinary labourers one 
share, and boys half a share each.” All male employees who have 
worked on the farm for at least two years receive bonus; but the 
female labourers are not given any share in profits, the reason 
given for their exclusion from participation being that most of the 
work which they do is piece-work. The number of persons (of 
either sex) employed on the farm varies from 188 to 238. The 
number of employees who, at December 31, 1911, were entitled to 
participate in profits, was 147. The ratio which the bonus has 
borne to the wages of participants, taking an average of the 
bonuses distributed in the years 1888-1911 inclusive, has been 
about 4‘8 per cent. In regard to the effects produced by the 
adoption of the profit-sharing scheme, the agent for the 
estate observes as follows:—“ I think the giving of the bonus 
has been the principal reason why we have never had the least 
trouble with the labourers on this estate, although there are many 
other boons for which they ought to be, and are, grateful.” 
In November, 1884, Messrs. Blundell, Spence & Co., Limited, 
colour, paint, and varnish manufacturers, oil boilers and refiners, 
and anti-fouling composition makers, of Hull and London, adopted 
a system of Profit-sharing. From the clear profit of the year, 
i-e., “ the net amount available for dividend, reserve, or carrying 
forward, after deduction of all outgoings whatever” there is 
deducted a sum sufficient to pay 5 per cent, on the preferred, 
and 6 per cent, on the ordinary shares; of the remainder a definite 
fraction is devoted to the payment of “ gratuities ” to the 
employees. This fraction was, under the original scheme, one- 
tenth; but under successive revisions of the scheme the propor 
tion was raised to one-eighth, and in May, 1912, to one-fifth. Of 
this bonus or “ gratuity ” fund the office staff takes one-sixth