DETAILED ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS SCHEMES. 63 Tunbridge Wells Gas Company, tlie Wrexham Gas Company, and the Merthyr Tydfil Gas Company, the employees are required to leave the whole of their first five annual bonuses to be invested in the Company’s stock: the Dartford Gas Company requires the first two bonuses to be thus invested. The employees of a large number of Gas Companies* have to leave for investment the whole of their bonus until the employee holds a specified amount of stock or shares. Under the schemes in force with the Walker and Wallsend Union Gas Company, the Watford Gas and Coke Company, the Wandsworth and Putney Gaslight and Coke Com pany, the Epsom and Ewell Gas Company, and the Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company, the whole of the bonus is always to be invested in stock or shares of the Company. Provisions as to withdrawable Bonus.—So far as concerns the part (if any) of the bonus which is not required to be invested in stock or shares of the Company, this money, usually one-half, is either (a) paid out in cash, as in the cases of the Rugby Gas Company, the Wellingborough Gas Company, and the Hartford Gas Company; or (b) is deposited with the Company: in the latter case it is withdrawable, in many casesf at short notice, but in some cases* (as with the South Metropolitan Gas Company) only under special circumstances or for special purposes. The interest which has been acquired in the capital of these profit-sharing Gas Companies by their employees amounts in the aggregate to a very considerable sum; for they own stock or shares (ordinary) to the total nominal value of £459,581, while the market value at present prices is considerably in excess of that amount; they also own preference stock to the total nominal value of £110, and debenture stock to the total nominal amount of £627; while they have, on deposit with their respective employers sums amounting in the aggregate to £142,134. With respect to the share possessed by these employees in the control of the affairs of the Companies by which they are employed, it must be remembered that in most cases sufficient * Cambridge University and Town Gas Light Company (£20); Bournemouth Gas and Water Company, Rugby Gas Company, Cardiff Gas Light and Coke Company, and Hertford Gas Light Company (£10) ; Croydon Gas Company, Gas Light and Coke Company, Wellingborough Gas Light Company, Ilford Gas Company, Weston-super-Mare Gas Light Company, Aldershot Gas, Water and District Lighting Company, Plymouth and Stonehouse Gas Light and Coke Company, and Enfield Gas Company (£5). f South Suburban Gas Company, Chester United Gas Company, Bourne mouth Gas and Water Company, Tunbridge Wells Gas Company, Rugby Gas Company, Gas Light and Coke Company, Wrexham Gas Company, Grantham Gas Company, Wellingborough Gas Light Company, Dartford Gas Company, Longwood Gas Company, Liverpool United Gas Light Company, Merthyr Tydfil Gas Company, Hertford Gas Light Company ; Leamington Priors Gas Company, Gloucester Gas Light Company, Cambridge University and Town Gas Light Company, City of Waterford Gas Company, Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Tight and Coke Company, Croydon Gas Company, Weston-super-Mare Gas Light Company, Plymouth and Stonehouse Gas Light and Coke Company, Enfield Gas Company ; in the last nine cases withdrawal is discouraged by the statement that regular withdrawal will debar an employee from future participation, or ®ay lead to the abandonment of the scheme. * Commercial Gas Company, Cardiff Gas Light and Coke Company, Ilford Gas Company, Wandsworth and Putney Gaslight and Coke Company, Aldershot Gas, Water and District Lighting Company.