premiums from the working classes £1,764, and the expenses of management were £1,125. He was present at a Court of Quarter Sessions in Staffordshire on the occasion of the trial of a collector charged with defrauding the Society of a sum of money. It came out in the course of the trial that the Trustee, Secretary, and Treasurer were one and the same person, and that he, in fact, managed the Society, and controlled the collectors. In the case of this Society, for every 20s. spent in relief £3 was spent on management. The next Society he would name was the St. Patrick's. Its income was £33,270, and its management cost £16,552, or for every 20s. paid in relief 16s. 3d. was spent in management. It was not known whether the number of members was 150,000 or 300,000, and although it was established in 1832, the funds in hand did not amount to more than half one year's income. The Society had often been before the courts, and it was managed by one person. Another Society he would name was the Liverpool United Legal, which had been established many years. It had as a patron a noble Earl, who was very much surprised when certain figures were put before him. There were 37,350 members; the accumulated assets were £10,000; its premium income was £14,838, and its management cost £7,141 a year. There were some cases in which from Friendly Societies they had become Joint Stock Companies, a change which ought to be carefully guarded against, and under no circumstances whatever ought the privileges of a Friendly Society to be given to a Society carrying on its operations by means of collectors."

The simple fact of the Earl of Lichfield having made such a speech in the House of Lords is a sufficient guarantee of the correctness of his statements, which I have no doubt would have been instantly contradicted had there been anything erroneous in them.

In the House of Commons, during the debate upon the amendment to the Friendly Societies Act in 1875-76, similar glaring accounts were given of various Societies established in different parts of the country. Amongst others, the following accounts were given :

"In one of the Burial Societies established in Liverpool, the sum of 15s. 3d. was expended under the head of management expenses for every 20s. paid as sick relief. In another Society established in one of our inland towns, matters were still worse. There was no less than £3 per head spent in management for every pound given to one of its members as relief!!! In this Society the funds amounted on an average to seven pence per member, whilst in that previously mentioned, a dividend would secure the munificent (?) sum of 2s. 4d. to each member!!"

No one therefore can fail to be struck with these frightful revelations, which mean no other than simple loss and penury to all those that join such Societies. On the one hand there is waste and extravagance, which is in the highest degree culpable; and on the other hand a consequent deprivation, which is as injurious in its moral as it is in its financial aspect. People are therefore greatly disappointed and feel disgusted when they cannot get money where they have a right to expect it; and their habits of frugality which were gradually increasing are thereby as unexpectedly wrecked. Such Societies as these must sooner or later come to an end. Sometimes quietly, for the suffering poor seldom make much noise; other times they come to a termination with a crash. The affliction falls upon the thrifty and deserving poor, and they bear it in silence. Widows find that the little portion saved by an industrious husband is swept away; sick men who have denied themselves in health to provide something

in time of need, find that their savings have disappeared, and the heaviest possible discouragement is thus put on those virtues of economy and thrift, which it is most desirable to encourage and foster.

Before concluding this subject, I wish to say that I am not adverse to the establishment of Insurance Societies, provided that they have their rates of payment based upon a sound footing, and that their affairs are properly managed, but I am very much opposed to those sham Societies that are started and managed by a certain class of people so as to obtain for themselves an easy living.

I therefore hope the young men of the rising generation may be enabled through the educational facilities which are now within the reach of the industrious, and through their own common sense, to discriminate between the showy meritricious but unsound club-advertising, collecting, or otherwise—and the well-managed Friendly Societies, whose financial laws are based upon a sound and equitable foundation.

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES MOST ADVISABLE TO JOIN.

Having given this matter my careful consideration, and with due regard to what I have previously written, I have come to the conclusion that it would be advisable for all persons intending to become members of a Provident Institution to join a Society that has its branches spread throughout the civilised world, so that they could be admitted into one of those branches if by chance they should be obliged to leave the part of the country in which they were initiated members.

It would indeed be very inconvenient for a member who might be initiated into a branch of a Society, in say Swan

C

sea, that might not have any branches in any part except in Wales, and he should have occasion to seek employment in the North of England, or perhaps, in the present emigrating mania, he might be inclined to visit the shores of a distant country, where there were no branches of the same Society as he had been initiated into, to be obliged to be put to the expense and trouble of transmitting his contributions once every three months or so to his Lodge in Swansea; whereas, if he had joined a Society which had its branches in various parts of the globe, he could not only visit them and pay them his pence, on behalf of his own Lodge, which could be forwarded annually or otherwise as arranged between the different Secretaries, but could also receive his sick pay there the same as if he were in his own Lodge, and he would also have an opportunity of becoming a member of that Lodge, or any other one of the said Order he might wish to be transferred to, by having what is termed a card of clearance or transfer card from the branch he was first initiated in. Those cards of clearance may at the first glance seem an injustice, for a person would say that the Lodge the member was initiated in would have received his entrance fee and perhaps the greater portion of his contributions during his early days, while the lodge he had been transferred to would be liable to pay him in case of sickness or death before he would have paid much into it, and would not naturally have had him a member as long as the Lodge he was originally initiated into, while they would be equally as liable. To meet this I may say, that however glaring this assumed injustice may appear, it is nevertheless evident that if you take a practical view of the matter, and have regard to the whole of the circumstances

connected with such an event, it is quite the same thing as initiating a new member, with but one trifling exception, and that is that the entrance fee is not quite so much in the former case as it is in the latter, and that the Lodge or branch into which he was first initiated, is generally liable for the payment of his sick pay or funeral donation for twelve months after he leaves it, should either occur during that period.

Another obstacle I should mention would be the inconvenience a member would be put to in sending any notices in case of sickness to his native Lodge. Just fancy for a moment that person at a great distance from his Lodge falling ill with a disease and perhaps succumb to its effects, see the time and trouble that would accrue in obtaining the funeral money for his family. It is indeed a very serious matter; and when a member is a great distance from his Lodge he is unable to attend its meetings or assist in its management, and to see that its affairs are properly carried on. He leaves it all in the hands of others. I have no doubt but that many members have been reluctantly compelled to give up their Lodge through the many inconveniences arising from the non-establishment of the same Order in that part of the country they may migrate to.

There are a number of Friendly Societies established in different parts of the United Kingdom, each having its own title. The majority of these have no connexion whatever with any other portion of the community, except just that in the vicinity wherein it first originated. I however think it but fair and just to mention that Societies that may not have their branches sufficiently extended as to become within my category may, in many places