AN EARLY CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 67, 22 March 1929, Page 7

AN EARLY CONFERENCE

FRIENDLY SOCIETY FINANCE

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "Tha Evening Post.") NELSON, This Day. in extending a welcome to representa-, tives of the Independent Order of Oddi'ellows o£ New Zealand, now sitting in conference here, the Mayor (Mr. W. J. Moffatt) said that during his term of office he believed there had been more conferences held in Nelson than at any time before in its history. This was the first time he had welcomed a friendly society conference, and it was with pleassure that lie did so, as he had much experience of the movement in his. younger days. He had represented Nelson at the big conference of friendly societies convened by the late Right Hon. R. J. Seddon in 1906, -when a member of their | own order (Mr. Leigh Hunt) presided. All J the various orders were represented, and he remembered that the local Manchester Unity was the best equipped through just having held their biennial conference. That conference was convened as Mr. Scddon considered that the Friendly Societies Act was out of dale and the opinions of the societies were needed before the Government introduced new.legislation. In the early days the speaker's own court (Foresters Order) was generally unlinancial and' this led him to read up and study everything in connection with friendly society finance. Thirty years ago the local Oddfellows set their house in order, but his own court had not taken the same interest. Mr. Moffatt went on to say that where instauces were given the actuaries were invariably right. The founders o£ a benefit society in Britain that ended in financial disaster found the cauae of their downfall was the fact that the contribution had been a halfpenny a week less than it should have been. This ■bowed that care was necessary.