ODDFELLOWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17878, 26 August 1918, Page 6

ODDFELLOWS.

AVAR PAYMENTS. ' IMPORTANT MEETING. The Grand Master and Board of Directors of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows sat in Wellington last week. The most important matter that engaged the attention of the meeting was the' question of tho payment of the contributions payable by. and the sick pay pavable to, war members whilst on active service. The returns from the various centres before the meeting showed that the. sick pay paid by lodges had been £5329 0s sd, and that the. contributions duo from tho Consolidated Fund to the lodges for the payment of war members' contributions was £0620 2s 6d. The rules provides that these moneys are to bo raised from three rources ;—(1) Extra contributions from individual members; (2) levies on tho existing sick and funeral funds of lodges,"to neutralise the liability that would have been cast on thos-* funds in civil lifo, now being borne by the war fund: (3) by appropriations of the surplus funds of lodges. The meeting decided to make a levy on the individual members of lodges varying with the benefits payable in the different lodges, payable quarterly, tho Sires instalment to be paid on September 30. Under tho second source of income, provision has been mado for two levies of 2i por cent each .on the existing sick and funeral funds. A number of claims for refunds of contributions and benefits were dealt with by the meeting, and payments were ordered to be- made for the periods for which tho soldiers were shown to be sick; convalescent periods were not included.

The preliminary reports of the valuations of the Wellington, Marlborough and AVanganui districts prepared by tho Government Actuary were presented, showing that those districts were in possession of considerable surpluses. Auckland, Hawke's Bay and Nelson districts, by their preliminary reports, supplied at an earlier date, showed that these districts wero also foi'nd to be in an exceptionally strong financial position. Tho Registrar of Friendly Societies reported that the remaining reports which were delayed owing to further information being required from three districts, would be available at an early date. The lodge and district degrees havo been the subject of careful revision by an influential committee of Australian Oddfellows, and have been settled on a uniform basis by the society in New Zealand and all the Australian States, excepting South Australia, which, according to latest reports, is also favourably considering its adoption. It was decided that every member who joins tho Air Service shall, for the purposes of the A\ r ar Members' Relief Fund, bo deemed to have became a war member from the time he commenced his aviation instruction.

It was reported to the meeting that some members of the society who aro on homo service were applying to havo their contributions paid out of the AVar Members' Relief Fund, notwithstanding that their incomo as soldiers is considerably in excess of tho income earned in civil life. The unanimous opinion of tho directorsi was that the working men who form tho rank and file of tho society should not be called upon to pay extra contributions in order to' provide for the payment of the contril utions of homo service members in more affluent circumstances...

Provision was made under general rule 153 (7a) to obtain the necessary consent of tho districts to •jonfine theprivilego of having contributions paid to thoso members of the Order who go on active service outside New Zealand.