DETAILED ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS SCHEMES. 
37 
the company, any balance of profit remaining will be divided into 
two parts, of which one-half shall belong to the ordinary share 
holders, and go to augment their dividend, and the other half 
shall belong to the total wages fund of the workpeople, clerks, and 
other employees of the company, excepting such as are paid 
wholly or in part by commission.” The company’s accounts 
ai’e audited by a professional accountant. Each employee who 
has been at least twelve months in the company’s service previous 
to the annual distribution is entitled to participate, and shares in 
proportion to the amount of wages earned (in the proportion 
that the sums paid to him or her in wages or salary bears to the 
total sum paid in wages and salaries during the year). The bonus 
is paid in cash. A certain number of employees each year are, 
of course, not entitled to participate owing to not having com 
pleted the qualifying period of twelve months’ service; and a 
sum is set aside representing what would have been paid to such 
employees had they possessed the necessary qualification, and 
is carried to a Provident Fund for the benefit of the employees. 
The balance yearly remaining to the credit of this fund is invested 
(under the control of the directors) in the company’s debentures 
and preference shares, and forms the nucleus of a superannuation 
fund. All the benefits provided by the scheme are declared to be 
a free gift only, no right being conferred upon any person. The 
company employs from 2,500 to 2,900 persons, of whom, at 
December 31, 1911, 1,995 were entitled to share in profits. The 
addition made to wages and salaries by the bonuses paid in 
1891-1912 inclusive has averaged 11'9 per cent. 
The total amount of the bonus allotted in favour of the 
employees in these 22 years is ,£172,025. The benefits provided 
by means of the Provident Fund are (a) the payment of two- 
tliirds of their wages for six weeks to employees who fall ill; 
(&),the payment of £5 to the representatives of a deceased em 
ployee; (c) the payment of £5 to women who, after being five 
year's in the company’s service, get married; (d) the gradual 
accumulation of a Superannuation Fund. The amount now 
standing to the credit of this Superannuation Fund, which will 
be for the benefit of all employees who have been 25 years in the 
service of the firm, and will come into operation in 1915, is over 
£37,000, invested in the company’s debentures and fully-paid 
preference shares. 
With regard to investments by the employees individually, the 
company states that the acquiring of shares in the business by 
employees has not developed as a feature, and the employees’ hold 
ing as regards both voting power and capital is negligible.* 
In reply to the question addressed to them in the present inquiry 
as to the results obtained by the adoption of Profit-sharing, the 
Company has sent the following observations: — 
“ The directors of the company are generally satisfied with 
the results of their scheme. Though all that was expected of 
it has not been realised—mainly because the most of the 
employees are young girls, whose main ambition is marriage, 
and consequently take no great permanent interest in the 
* On this point, see remarks of one of the company’s managing directors on 
Pp. 11 and 12.