As time went on, too, the position was becoming more and more difficult for the manager. He does not seem to have been a strong man, or else he had grown careless. At all events, at one quarterly meeting when the criticisms of the delegates had been even more searching than usual, he left the meeting before its close, and when the committee adjourned to the committee room at the close of the meeting they found a letter from him intimating his resignation. Whether it was with the idea of getting a little of his own back, or because he thought that having engaged the employees it was his duty to dismiss them is unknown, but when he took his own departure he also dismissed the office and breadroom staffs, and there was a little difficulty for a day or two until they were brought back or others procured in their places. After discussion, the committee decided that they would not advertise for a manager, but for a confidential clerk and cashier, and Mr Robert Craig, then bookkeeper with the S.C.W.S., was the successful applicant. The trade was increasing slowly but steadily, and during the second year averaged 90 sacks per week. Shortly after the removal to the new bakery the Society had four vans on the road, and was supplying eleven societies. In June of that year it was decided to take up thirty shares in the S.C.W.S., and pay one shilling per share, but a month later this decision was departed from in favour of one that the question of joining the Wholesale Society be left to the quarterly meeting. This decision had its origin most probably in the fact that the Society had no money to spare at the moment for investment, as at the same meeting it was decided that the manager make an effort to pay the flour merchant and take flour into stock. At the quarterly meeting it was decided that the Society should join the S.C.W.S., and take up two shares for every society which was a member of the Federation. At the same time, the members of the committee were becoming more confident in their handling of the business, one evidence of this being the fact that they were purchasing flour in much larger quantities. The new bakery had only been in operation for six months when the trade had increased so much that the erection of other two ovens was being considered, and at the same time the reroofing of a shed for the purpose of turning it into a flour store was agreed on, and the manager was instructed to “get estimates of the cost of having the floor laid with any material that would keep out rats.” It would appear, however, that the cost was more than the committee could venture to face at the moment, and it was not until the following April that the question of new ovens was again raised, when all the societies were written to on the subject and all agreed to the proposal of the committee.