NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12501, 30 March 1909, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Co-partnership in Business. Co-partnership in business enterprises employing large numbers of men is advancing in Great Britain. Following on the arrangements in the shipbuilding trade, comes the news of a similar scheme in connection with the Gaslight and Coke Company, one of the largest of the London gas companies. An-idea of the extent of this company's operations may- be gathered from the fact that it employs 11,000 servants, and that a reduction of ld . in the price of gas means a saving of to its consumers. At a recejit meeting the directors laid before. 460 representatives of the men a scheme by which they could be received into partnership. The London. Companj', in inviting its employees to join as co-partners, explained that bonuses would be placed to their credit calculated as percentages on their wages according to a .sliding scale. For instance, when the price of gas was 3s the bonus would be 1 % per cent; when the price was 2s 9d the bonus would be 3 per cent. It was further proposed that when the price of gas was reduced below 2s 9d the bonus should be increased "by a greater percentage, namely, f per cent for every ld reduction. _ The sums thus .due to employees will be placed in the company's stock, and no portion of it is te be drawn until the total reaches •£5. After tha^ total is reached one half or all subsequent bonuses may be 'drawn out or left: in the. company's hands at the discretion of the employee. The scheme was gladly accepted by the men. It will date from 30th June next, and will then be-re-garded as retrospective for two years. The reason; given by the. company- for .making the proposal was twofold — partly and chiefly to enable the employees to save money and "improve their position, and partly to hold out ah extra for efficient service. ;■',.... Espionage in England. Major A. J. Reed, Secretary for Perthshire of the Primrose League, made some startling; revelations at a Unionist meeting at Blackford.' Referring to the recent allegations regard-, ing the activity of German spies. at Rosyth,' he stated that to our Intelligence Department there had recently been revealed the organisation of functions of the special department of the German secret police-operating in England. " Their agents were . divided into two divisions, one of which was known as fixed agents, or "letterboxes," as they were termed among the spies themselves, these being men of .various nationalities, in all grades of life, from labourers to merchants, who made reports upon our coast defences, waterworks, railways, stores of provisions, etc. The second division were travelling agents^ who were sometimes in the guise of moneylenders, or more often German commercial ti avellers. . These directed the work of espionage, and made payments tb tht; fixed agents in the industrial centres of Scotland alone. There were, he declared, ; at this moment no fewer than 1500 persons, -male and female, in the employment of the German. General Staff. It was now known that the whole of the defences of Scotland had been secretly investigated and reported upon to Berlin. He added that the number of Germans regularly collecting information in England, more especially on the East and South coasts, was computed to be oversoooT