Cardiff, 23rd December, 1892. The Directors having had recently before them several applications for retiring allowances from members of the staff, have taken the whole question of such allowances into their consideration, and I am directed to state that, there being no Clearing House or other fund for the provision of retiring allowances to persons in receipt of weekly wages, the Directors have formulated a scheme under which such persons on attaining the age of sixty may receive a retiring allowance without any cost to themselves. The scale of allowances, and the conditions under which they may be granted, are as follows:

1. Any man in the permanent employ of the Company at weekly wages in any department, whether a uniform servant or not, who has reached sixty years of age with not less than twenty-five years' service, and who is not eligible for or belonging to the Clearing System Superannuation Fund Association may be recommended for a retiring allowance by the Head of the Department in which he is employed; and in the report embodying such recommendation, which must be accompanied by a medical certificate as to his capacity for work, the position of the man so recommended, his length of service, character, and circumstances, must be fully stated for the information of the Directors.

2. Any man so reported and found eligible for retirement may be granted an allowance according to the following scale, and subject to the undermentioned conditions, viz. :

If 60 years of age, his average weekly wages during the last ten years will be divided into 70 parts.

If 61 years of age they will be divided into

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Each of the above-mentioned parts will be multiplied by the number of years' service of the man to be retired, and the amount thus ascertained will be divided into two equal shares, one of which will represent the weekly allowance to be granted by the Company, and the other will be considered as the amount which the man might fairly be expected to be able to provide through any Friendly Society or Benefit Club to which he may belong, or by any other means at his command.

3. The minimum and maximum allowances to be so granted by the Company will be as follow, viz. :

4. As regards any provision by the Company's servants towards their retirement. each man is to be at liberty to exercise his own discretion in this matter, on the understanding that should he fail to make any such provision the Company's allowance will not be refused on that account, nor can it be increased to make up the deficiency to him.

5. As the allowances to be granted by the Company will be provided out of their own funds, without any contributions from the men, it must be clearly understood that the Directors must reserve to themselves the right of refusing, withdrawing, reducing, or increasing an allowance in any case, as also the power of altering or terminating these arrangements at any time as and when they may deem necessary.

A. BEASLEY, General Manager.