The Hastings Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909 EMPLOYEES' CO-PARTNERSHIP SYSTEM.

Hastings Standard, Volume XII, Issue 4126, 8 April 1909, Page 4

The Hastings Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909 EMPLOYEES' CO-PARTNER-SHIP SYSTEM.

At the Frimley Workers' Social Club entertainment on Tuesday night, Mr J. N. Williams told his employees that before long he hoped to bring his them into the firm under the co-partnership system, with the view of bettering their (the employees) condition, and giving them a further incentive to take interest in their work. The system is, we believe, new to Hawke's Bay, but in other parts of the Dominion it has in rare instances been introduced and found to work to the satifaclion of employers and workpeople. In the Old Country many factories and businesses are run on the co-part-nership principle, and so satisfactory have the results been that its practice is extending rapidly. An English trade journal, to hand by the last English mail, comments most favourably on its introduction, and, refering to oae industry, says there are 19,681 employees of gas companies in England enjoying the privileges it provides. Of these, 16,700 are in London, 1,600 in suburban districts, while the largest number in the provinces is 375, at Bournemouth. fifteen gas companies and one corporation, Stafford, work under the system, which was adopted by nine of them last year. "Certain of the new co-partnership companies (says the Journal) have met during the past week, and the reports are unanimous as to the striking amount of .interest the introduction of the system has evoked among the men. Indeed, appreciation and enthusiasm are terms that hardly cover the attitude of the men as a whole." This, as the French say, gives one furiously to think. May not, indeed, the copartnership system be the ultimate solution of all capital and labour disputes? The forethought and enterprise of Mr J. N. Williams in venturing to introduce new methods in regard to his firm's economic relations with its workpeople, will afford an opportunity to other employers in Hawke's Bay to see how the system results, and if it proves as successful as we anticipate, and as it deserves to be, then the example set by Frimley will doubtless be followed by many others who in the past have been perplexed by labour difficulties. Mr Williams, with the assistance of of his able manager, Mr E. BasilJones, has done much to sweeten and make brighter the lives of the people who toil at his factory, and the fact that he has under consideration the co-partnership system shows that wherever possible he introduces innovations for their betterment. His actions in the pasf have proved that the sentence he uttered the other night: "I always try to help those who help themselves" was no idle platitude. Besides helping them he provides for their entertainment and enjoyment in a manner which must j surely give them heart to do their best in all they undertake.