DIFFICULTIES BEGIN. By this time the members of the committee were beginning to realise that there were difficulties in running a baking business. Complaints had been made that the bread was sour, and the foreman baker laid the blame on a change of temperature. The explanation was quite likely to be the correct one, although a foreman with an interest in his work might have been expected to take precautions against such difficulties. The committee were not long in discovering that this was just what their foreman did not do. At the next meeting his attention was again called to complaints about the bread. This time it was being sent out to the shops in a dirty condition. He was also informed that the blend of flours which he was using was costing too much, and the committee decided that they should draft a statement of the proportions in which the differently priced flours were to be used. It was also decided to dismiss one of the vanmen on the ground that he was careless about his work and his horse. In the case of the baker matters went from bad to worse until, an earlier historian[1] tells us, he struck work altogether. The committee for some time had been in constant fear that some morning the ovens would be found cold, or else that the bread would be burnt black, and the crisis came when, at 11 p.m. one Thursday toward the end of May, the president was aroused from sleep to receive the intelligence that the Baking Society had given up business. This was serious news; but sure enough, when he had hurriedly dressed himself and made his way with all speed to Coburg Street, he found the bakery in darkness. Mr Borrowman was next awakened, and told the doleful tidings. Both gentlemen hurried to the foreman’s house to discover that happy-go-lucky individual soundly asleep, careless that hungry Co-operators would be breadless in the morning. He was induced to go to work, and next day the committee were hastily summoned, only to discover that the foreman was tired of his job, and had fully made up his mind that he was going to be responsible no longer for supplying Co-operators with the staff of life. The committee were at their wits end, but there was nothing for it but to get another baker. Here the minutes take up the story. The committee at their meeting spoke to the foreman about the loss on the first quarter’s working, which amounted to £37. His reply was to the effect that he never expected to make a profit the first quarter. They then spoke to him of the numerous complaints which were being received with reference to the quality of the bread, and he replied that as he was unable to do better the best thing he could do was to resign. His resignation was accepted, and after very considerable difficulty another man was found to take his place; but he only remained a week or two, and ultimately, in June, another man was procured who was able to do better.