THE TEAROOMS.
During most of these years the tearooms continued to be the “lame dog” of the Society. Little or no improvement took place, and balance-sheet after balance-sheet showed a loss in working or an infinitesimal profit. The question cropped up regularly at the quarterly meetings, and countless suggestions for improvement were made. Particularly was this the case with regard to catering for the less wealthy class of the community. A conference with the respective heads of the tearooms took place, with the object of going into the whole question, but it does not seem to have borne much fruit. The suggestions made, as recorded in the minutes, were of a negative character, and nothing was done. Later, Mr Towart, purvey department, was put in charge of London Street and Paisley Road Rooms for a month, with the object of seeing what could be done to improve the position. On the result of Mr Towart’s experiment the minutes are silent; but, from the fact that in less than six months thereafter the Wheatsheaf Rooms were bought over by the manageress, it would seem that it did not give much hope of success for that branch at least.