PRESIDENT AND TREASURER RETIRE.
The year 1880 was notable for the retiral of two officials of the Society who had given long and faithful service. Mr Alexander, who had been treasurer almost from the beginning, was defeated at the annual meeting held in March, Mr James M‘Murran, Glasgow Eastern, receiving the greater number of votes. At the same meeting Mr Andrew Brown, who had been president of the Federation from 1872, intimated that it was not his intention to seek re-election, his reason for this course being that his society, Paisley Provident, had decided to open a bakery of their own. At the following quarterly meeting the delegates decided to present Mr Brown with £30 as a token of esteem for the manner in which he had conducted the business of the Society during the years in which he had been president. This decision called forth a protest from Paisley Equitable Society—in the first place from the committee of the society, and later by the authority of a quarterly meeting—but the committee of the Baking Federation held that as the decision had been that of the delegates the matter was one in which they could not interfere, and in due course the presentation to Mr Brown took place. Mr Alexander Fraser, Busby, was elected president in succession to Mr Brown, and during his term of office the Society entered on a period of prosperity much greater than any which had been experienced hitherto.
By the withdrawal of Johnstone and Parkhead societies the membership of the Federation now numbered only twenty-one societies, and for four quarters there was no addition. But although societies did not join up with the Federation very rapidly customers on a non-member basis were coming in. First there was a request from Allander Society for supplies, coupled with the promise that in a very short time an application for membership would follow, and the committee agreed to supply them provided that the accounts were settled fortnightly. In September the Society was admitted to membership. Owing to the coming withdrawal of Paisley Provident Society the committee took energetic steps to make good the deficit in the output which would occur when this took place. They selected Greenock district as a likely field to tap, with such good results that Greenock East-End Society soon became purchasers and were admitted to membership early in the following year. Port-Glasgow Society followed, and after a little Ann Street Society, Greenock, became a customer, to be followed shortly afterwards by Dalmuir, Clydebank, and Cowlairs societies. Then came Clippens Society and Greenock Industrial. To get in all these societies, however, had taken nearly two years, and there had been decided fluctuations in the output during the period. With the withdrawal of Paisley Provident Society, notwithstanding the increased trade which came from Greenock, the number of sacks baked had dropped from 235 in the 48th quarter to 186 in the 51st; then there began a gradual rise until the 63rd quarter showed an average output of 267 sacks per week. The withdrawal of Paisley Provident Society had meant a loss to the Baking Society of trade amounting to about £2,000 a quarter.