DETAILED ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS SCHEMES. 59 notice. Now it was laid down that this second half of the bonus is to he “ left in the company’s hands to accumulate at interest, “ or it may be invested in stock with the trustees, or it may be “ withdrawn under special circumstances by giving a week’s “ notice.” Another change made by the 1910 revision was the increase in the number of members of the Co-partnership Committee from 36 to 54; and it is provided that “ candidates must hold and con- “ tinue to hold while in office on the Committee not less than “ £25 of stock, and they must have been not less than five years “ in the company’s service.” The Co-partnership Rules of the South Metropolitan Gas Com pany are printed in full in Appendix L, pp. 141-144. Speaking generally, a large part of the functions of the Co partnership Committee* consists in smoothing away friction which may arise between individual workmen and their employers, and in removing suspicions entertained by a workman that he is not being treated fairly. For this purpose a very important part is played by the workmen’s representatives on this Committee to whom the workman who thinks himself hai'dly dealt with applies in the first instance. In very many cases a talk between the workman and the representative on the Co-partnership Committee of the class of employees to which he belongs suffices to allay the man’s discontent. Should this not be the case, the next step is for the representative before whom he has laid his case to put the matter before the superintendent or other official in charge of the depart ment of the works in which the workman is employed. If the interview between the official and the representative should fail to produce results satisfactory to the complainant, then the case is brought before the Co-partnership Committee. But the necessity for this step occurs but seldom, most cases being settled in the manner above mentioned. When complaints come before the Committee its decision is always accepted without demur. In a certain number of cases, however, the matters which have come before the Co-partnership Committee have concerned, not individual workmen, but the employees of the Company as a whole. In this manner the rules of the Superannuation Fund of the Company have from time to time received necessary revisions. Perhaps the most important of the many useful tasks that have been performed by the Co-partnership Committee has been the settlement of the rules of the Company’s Accident Fund, and the subsequent revisions of these rules necessary to adapt them to be certified (as they have been) as a Contracting-out-Scheme under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts. In relation to this Scheme the Co-partnership Committee acts as referee in cases of disputed The account given in the text is based upon information supplied by the secretary of the Co-partnership Committee and by certain of the workmen’s representatives on the Committee.