The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning, and Echo. MONDAY, JULY 9, 1888.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 161, 9 July 1888, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning, and Echo.

MONDAY, JULY 9, 1888.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that neada resistance, Tor the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The principle of making provision for old ige, illness and death was early engrafted on the social institutions of this colony,' the establishment of the first Friendly Society dating back from 1844, when the Fountain of Friend, ship Lodge was established in the infant metropolis of Auckland, with a 1 membership containing under 20. Th e seed so planted fell on good soil, and: the history of Friendly Societies has been one. of continued expansion and progress. Perusing the last report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, we find that the total membership in the seventy societies in the colony at the end of 1886 was 21,679, possessing funds amounting to 12s 6d. Of the membership, the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows claimed 9,620, and funds totalling In passing it may be mentioned that the Fountain of Friendship Lodge, already referred to as the oldest in the colony, is also the wealthiest, its funds being valued at while the number of members good on the books at the time of the making up of the returns was 380. The next great Society— the Ancient Order of Foresters —has 5,606 members, and ,£79,050 worth of property, and the figures in connection with other organisations show : — Members. Funds, £ £ ' Druids 2,324 9,699 Rechabites 1,144 13,888 Hibernians 721 6,204 Protestant Alliance ... 548 3,477 Independent Order of Oddfellows 459 8,058 National Independent Order of Oddfellows ... 337 2,082 The total receipts of the societies for 1886 amounted to and the disbursements in sick pay, funeral expenses, etc., to In the remarks accompanying the report, -trie Registrar sounds a timely note of warning concerning the building mania. He says : —

New Zealand societies have lost heavily by the " building mania," as it has been rightly named, and yet the bltterexperience does not seem to deter others from rashly risking a great portion, and sometimes the whole, of their accumulated funds _in this mode of investment, trustees being found even foolish enough to become .personally liable for sums advanced on mortgage of the property. The following extract from recent official correspondence is a lamentable exemplification of the ruin which has been .wrought thereby among three branches of one district: "As to the funds of the Lodge,' there are none. They foolishly built a hall, borrowed some money on mortgage,-and the trustees now find themselves liable for something like £130. This same mania for hall-building ruined one lodge some years ago, and lately our lodge. 7'

We publish this extract knowing that in our own district there has been a tendency to speculation, which cannot fail to have an injurious effect on the finances of the societies. We are glad to learn, however, from the report that generally the societies are in a sound financial condition, and if they continue to advance, as has been their experience in the past, the possibilities of their future are almost beyond conception. .