Page 158 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.
reached four and a half miUions, tlie profits amounted to £50,000 a
year, and the societies then federated represented a constituency of
half a miUion persons. The C.VV.S. tale of miUions had well begun,
and some jubilation, it was felt, would not be out of place. Through-
out the organisation preparations were made for celebrations in
connection with the Quarterly Meetings at each of the three centres.
Circumstances combined to make the Northern gathering the most
picturesque. Some three years earlier, Mr. H. R. Bailey, of the
C. W.S. Newcastle Branch, had suggested the presentation of a lifeboat
by co-operators to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. An
appeal by the Congress had produced the cost of a boat (£650) and a
balance (£250) toward a second. Accordingly the Co-operator No. 1
was provided for the station at Cullercoats, near Tynemouth, and
it was agreed that the presentation and launch should coincide with
the Wholesale Society's festival. Councillor Youll, of Newcastle,
contributed by lending the Tynemouth Aquarium for the day free of
charge. Here, on the morning of Saturday, September 13th, 1884,
the C.W.S. Quarterly Meeting was held, the delegates and visitors
afterwards returnmg as far as North Shields to join the hfeboat
procession. Arrived at Cullercoats, the boat was presented by Mr.
Named by Mrs. Bailey, it was
Bland, of Huddersfield and the C.W.S .
then launched in the presence of more than thirty thousand spectators.
Following the launch, nine hundred guests of the C.W.S. sat down to
dinner; and four thousand people in the evening crowded into the
Aquarium for music and speeches, albeit only the voice of Mitchell
was equal to the occasion.
Less crowded, but none the less enthusiastic, proceedings marked
the commemoration in London. Breakfast was served to the
delegates at Leman Street, after which the Quarterly Meeting was
held. At Tynemouth the seductions of the place had not abated any
zeal for business; and in London the meeting continued until, at
one o'clock, it became necessary to omit votes of thanks and send
the entire meeting running, trotting, and violently striding over
London Bridge for a 1-20 train and dinner at the Crystal Palace by a
quarter past two. Music and an excellent meal rewarded the
successful, as well as those who arrived by the next train, and
speeches prolonged the gathering until six o'clock.
At Manchester the following week the usual general Quarterly
Meeting was held, incidents of which were the admission of the
Stratford (London) Society into membership, the reduction of interest
upon loans, and the acceptance of the resignation of Mr. T. Wood
122