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II.—PRIVATE FIRMS AND COMPANIES.

certificates for eight years; and of the total number of certificates
issued, 303 were retrospective for eight years or over, 42 for seven
years, 81 for six, 123 for five, 159 for four, 131 for three, 99 for
two, and 103 for one year.*

In 1910 the total amount of Certificates (of both kinds) was
raised to £214,982, in 1911 to £298,731.

It may he mentioned that the dividends on the Partnership
Certificates are credited to the persons entitled to receive them
in a Savings Bank account, opened for the purpose in the Com-
pany’s books in 1909.

The total number of persons employed by Lever Brothers,
Limited, and by its Associated Companies in 1911 in the United
Kingdom was over 9,000. There were 2,500 employed outside
the United Kingdom. Of these, at the end of 1911, .1,749 (1,448
in the United Kingdom, 301 outside it) were the holders of
Partnership or Preferential Certificates under the Scheme above
described.

In reply to the Department’s question as to the results obtained
by these arrangements, the Company writes : —

“ It is too early yet, in the opinion of the Chairman of the
Company, to speak authoritatively with reference to the Co-
partnership Scheme. But his experience is that with the
majority the Scheme does increase their sense of responsi-
bility and loyalty to the firm, perseverance and assiduity in
discharge of duties. He would not abandon it, nor has he
any desire to go back to the days before the Scheme. If it
were not in operation, he would desire to provide such a
Scheme, and he does not think his experience of it has dis-
closed any inherent defects or any possibility as far as this
business is concerned of very materially improving upon it.”

Bonus, part Cash, part Provident Fund.*

An example of the type of Profit-sharing in which part of the
fund available for the payment of bonus is paid in cash and the
remainder is credited to a Provident Fund for the benefit of the
employees may be found in the scheme of a large London firm
of confectionery manufacturers, Messrs. Clarke, Kiel,oils, and
Coombs, Limited, which came into force on January 1, 1890.
The arrangement in this case is that “ after paying all
salaries, liabilities on agreements, making allowances for bad
debts, and the usual provision for depreciation and other reserves,
paying interest on debentures, dividend on preference shares, and
a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent.t on the ordinary capital of

* The Eules of a profit-sharing scheme with bonus partly paid in cash partly
credited to Provident Fund will be found in Appendix G-., pp. 130-133.

f The company states that it had paid 10 per cent, on its ordinary shares for
two years prior to the introduction of the profit-sharing scheme, “ but it was
thought wiser to start dividing profits with the workpeople after only 6 per cent,
had been paid to the ordinary shareholders. The directors suggested this as
having every confidence in the scheme themselves, they thought, if the workpeople
saw something tangible within their grasp, they would be more likely to give
it a fair trial.”