INTRODUCTION. 
39 
has an even larger business, and acts as the 
hanker of the smaller stores throughout the 
country. The first named society has been also the 
occasion of an amendment in the Inland Revenue 
Acts (see Part III., post), by which societies 
having limited shares and dealing with the public 
are exempted from the arrangement made by 
section 11 (4) of the Industrial and Provident 
Societies Act, 1876, for enforcing the liability to 
income tax against the member directly instead 
of through the society. 
74. An Industrial and Provident (frequently 
called “ Co-operative ”) Society is defined by the 
Act to be a society for carrying on any labour, 
trade, or handicraft, including the buying and 
selling of land and the business of banking, and 
the interest of any member in the shares (or 
funds) of such a society is limited to £200. The 
shares may be either all withdrawable or all 
transferable, or some shares may be transferable 
and others withdrawable; but no society carry 
ing on the business of banking may have any 
withdrawable capital. A society may, however, 
take deposits of not more than 5.?. in any one 
sum, nor more than £20 from any one person, 
without being deemed to be carrying on the busi 
ness of banking. A society for banking must 
keep a half-yearly statement of its funds always 
hung up at every place where it carries on 
business. 
75. The number of Industrial and Provident 
Societies recorded as in existence in the last 
Report of the Chief Registrar was 1,028, of