THE SCHEME APPROVED.
The scheme was brought before the members at the quarterly meeting of the Society held in September of the same year. It provided for the formation of a Bonus Investment Society confined to the employees of the U.C.B.S. Ltd., the object of which was that of enabling the employees to become members and invest their bonus in shares of the U.C.B.S. The shares were to be paid up by the retention of not less than one-fourth of the bonus payable to employees whose wages were over £1 per week. Any employee leaving the service of the Society ceased to be a member of the Bonus Investment Society, and was compelled to place his shares on the transfer list, and all transfers were to be made through the board of management. The Bonus Investment Society was to have one vote at the general meetings of the U.C.B.S. as a member, with an additional vote for every £80 of shares held in the Society. When the scheme came before the general meeting it was approved by a large majority of the delegates, only one amendment being made, which made withdrawal from the Bonus Investment Society optional instead of compulsory on leaving the service of the Society. At the ninety-first quarterly meeting the rules were altered to permit of the new society being admitted a member and exercising the right of voting agreed on in the scheme.
Since that time the rules of the Bonus Investment Society and the conditions on which membership in the Federation is held have been altered on several occasions. First, the sum which must be held in the Federation to qualify for one vote was raised to £250, and again to £500; while, on a later occasion, it was also decided that the maximum number of votes which the society could exercise was twenty-five. On several occasions, also, determined attempts were made to have the payment of bonus discontinued, but always without success. In the first year in which the society was instituted the number of members was 135, and the amount paid in was £336. At the end of the twenty-seventh year the membership was 797, and the total holding in the Society £24,265. During these twenty-seven years the holding of the members in the Federation has shown a steady growth, and many employees have little nest eggs laid past for the ever-dreaded rainy day which they would not have had but for the institution of the Bonus Investment Society.
PRESENT BOARD
1. ALEXANDER BUCHANAN, President.
2. THOMAS M‘LEAN.
3. JOHN YOUNG.
4. MATTHEW H. CADIZ.
5. JAMES HAMILTON.
PRESENT BOARD
1. JOHN B. MONTEITH.
2. ROBERT M‘LAY.
3. JOHN F. JOHNSTONE.
4. JOHN SIMPSON.
5. JOHN B. WALKER.