70 CONSTRUCTION ANt> MANAGEMENT Of SMALL GASWORkS. 



from a very early period, by means of various more or less 

 crude arrangements, such as the back shilling (a shilling a 

 week held back and payable at six or twelve months 

 intervals, subject to good conduct), an annual present at 

 Christmas, a bonus on every 100 cubic feet per ton made 

 beyond an agreed standard, on increases in gas sold, or on 

 the net profit. It remained for the late Sir George Livesey 

 to gather up these broken threads and weave them into a 

 complete fabric, and his scheme of co-partnership is now 

 generally admitted to be the best known means of 

 meeting the requirement. As there are no works too large 

 for it, so there is none too small. A strong plea for its 

 application to the small works is the absence of anything 

 like complete supervision. Sometimes one of the directors 

 happens to have leisure time on his hands, and makes a 

 hobby of the gasworks, but otherwise the profits do not 

 warrant daily or even weekly attendance, and the working 

 manager may be left to himself for months at a time. 



As a rule, the remuneration takes the form of an 

 inclusive weekly or monthly wage, inclusive in the sense 

 that no extras in the way of overtime or Sunday work are 

 allowed. And the custom of allowing perquisites, such as 

 free gas, a cwt. of coal or coke per week in the winter, etc., 

 has now practically died out. A week's free holiday in the 

 summer is very usual. This is simply an equivalent of 

 the six days' holiday in a year that are, by custom, granted 

 to persons in receipt of fixed wages. Apart from this, and 

 while there is no possible objection to a joint of beef or a 

 goose at Christmas, it is not desirable that the wage should 

 include anything in the form of gifts it is putting the man 

 in a false position. He is entitled to receive the full, fair 

 market value of his labour, and his employers cannot be 

 expected to pay more. 



