94 IV.—CONVERSION OF ORDINARY BUSINESSES INTO CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES. good by writing off tbe accumulated shares to the amount required; out of the balance an amount not exceeding 10 per cent, of the profits was to be devoted to forming a Reserve Fund to the value of one-tenth of the amount of the Society’s shares, loans and deposits; a further.10 per cent, was to be paid over to the Provi dent Fund and Education Fund in proportions to be determined by the Committee; while the remaining profit of the Society was to form a “dividend fund” to be distributed as follows:—(a) One-third to the holders of ordinary and accumulated shares, and to the holders of special loan stock in proportion to the paid-up or accumulated amounts of their holdings; (b) one-tliird to all the employees of the Society who should have worked for the Society at least 600 hours during the period to which the distribution related, but so that the bonus to labour thus provided should accrue in favour of those employees only who were members of the Society, the share of profit which would have gone to the other em ployees but for their non-membership being paid to the Provident Fund; (c) one-third to the management. This one-third allotted to the management was to be distributed in the proportion of 50 per cent, to the president as remuneration for his services, 15 per cent, to the Committee, and 35 per cent, to the manager and fore men, and to others rendering special services to the Society, whether members or not; such 35 per cent, to be in addition to their bonus as employees, and to be at the sole discretion of the president, without his having to render any account of the same, and with power to carry any part forward from year to year. Of the shares of dividend allotted under (a) and (b) one-half was to be paid in cash, one-half in accumulated shares of the Society. In its first year the Society employed (according to the amount of work in hand) from 120 to 150 persons, of whom at the end of the year (1902) 27 received out of the profits in the form of cash bonus plus sums credited as shares or to Provident Fund, amounts equivalent to 41 per cent, on their wages; in 1903, 33 (out of 120) employees received a little over 3 per cent.; in 1904, 4 per cent, was paid to 44 employees (out of the total of 190 employed in that year); in 1905 no bonus was paid; in 1906 6'4 per cent, was paid to 30 member-employees (out of a total of 109 employees); in 1907 a bonus was paid, but neither the ratio which that bonus bore to wages, nor the number of participants can be stated; in 1908 and 1909 no share in profits was received by the employees, and in July, 1910, the Society went into voluntary liquidation.