FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 929, 18 September 1869, Page 8

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

(Daily News.)

The report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, Mr Tidd Pratt, suggests the necessity of a public enquiry into the condition of suoh societies generally. The people have no means of knowing •which are insolvent and which are flourishing. They know that the rules are certified, though that is but a slight protection ; they probably see names they know as trustees or patrons — names which are too often lent out of good feeling, and without enquiry ; but what they do not get to know is, that the expenses of management are so great as to render it impossible that tho society should eventually meet its engagements. These societies may be divided into two classes— those which are managed by the members, and those whioh are managed by officials who are practically irresponsible. The first class are usually economically conducted, though there is often muoh unnecessary expenditure for beer, or re* gtlia, or processions : the other class are characterised by the most wanton extravagance. Tho first aro friendly societies pure and simple, are conducted by and for the members ; the others are burial and insurance societies, and are conducted primarily by and for the officials, and are many of them on the verge of insolvenoy. These burial societies aro, in fact, insurance societies in whioh lives aro taken from one d*y to eighty years, with premiums commencing from, one-halfpenny a woek, and in which no guarantee for good management exists. None of these burial societies have dared to inform tho Registrar what their liabilities aro ; but he has gathered from their reports the most startling revelations of their condition. The Royal Liverpool Sooioty of course figures in this report. Tho Committeemen of this sooiety— Frienily Society though it professes to be—receive lalaries of L 520 per annum each ; a larger sum than is paid to any governor, director, aor com-mittee-man of tho most prosperous insurance otfloes in England. This society has some 400,000 members ; its annual income last year was L 146.247 ; it paid to members for sickness and deaths, L 00 ,873 ; and tho cost of management was L 54,983 : thirty seven per cent, of its receipt*, and fifteen and ninepenco for ©vory pound disbursed beneficially to the members. Ita property was L 132,272; of its liabilities nothing oould bo learnod— that thoy wore ton times its propoity is probably a modorato oatimnto. Another such society is tho Viotorift liOgal, whioh at»o had its headquarters at Liverpool. Tho nocounta of this society for tho year ending May, 18G8, showed an inoomo of L 32.95 4; paymonts for funerals, L 12,608 ; and exoonscs of management, L 15 ,335 ;»o that for ©vory pound paid in benefits to tho members, ono pound four and fourpeneo was pftid in bonuses and salaries to thooffloiaU. The property of tho society amounts to L15,832-tho number of mombers to 127,284. Tho accounts of ton other burial societies aro subjected by Mr Pratt to a similar analysis, and w« givo tho reault in his own words :— M It will, thereto™, appoar that thono twelvo barial societies (and there aro mimerouo others) consist of more than ono million insurers ; tho amount of tho insuranoo cannot bo lesa than three million pounds sterling ; that thoir grow receipts from tho Insurers in tho last year were L 247.935 ; thoamottntf paid for benefit* assured LI.'JS, 151 ; the amount of ojcponws for management LH763 ; and that Ibo whole of their lands, inolndlng the value of their proporty, and mon«y in the huda of trwumrers, agent*,

and, cpfieotoDj, is onfy,/L181,l&£ or the amounts. of • three-quarters of <a year's ;pre« miiims." ( The benefits of such societies as these are principally confined to the Officials. They are only kept afloat by the conetanfr accession of new- members. The liabilities fall upon them gradually at first, but as the; society gets older, more and more of the liabilities come upon it, and it must eventually succumb to them. Every year such societies' are coming to an end, sometimes quietly, f dr 1 the suffering poor make but little noise, sometimes with a crash, as when the Confident and Friend in Need Societies came to ruin. It is impossible to estimate the disappointment and suffering these failures create. 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 have something in the time of need find that their savings have _ been thrown away, and the heaviest possible discouragement is thus put on those virtues, and economy and thrift which it is most of all desirable to encourage and foster. Theße extravagant officials arc enemies of the State who should be looked after. There are plenty of men who trade upon the vices of the people, and who are restrained in so doing ; these men are worse, they trade upon the peoples' virtues. It is evident that the whole subject of Friendly Societies must undergo thorough enquiry, and be made the subject of legislation. This is not a matter in which the people should be left to take care of themselves. A kind of quasi sanction is alroady given to the worst of these societies by the certification of their rules, but this question of solvenoy is not bo muoh one of rules as one of management. The tables may be correct, and the rules may be all that is desirable, but the income of the society may still be squandered, and no check on the squandering bo possible. Mr Pratt instances one society in which there is the usual rule that no trustee shall be in receipt of any emolument from the society, but in which one of the trustees has a salary of LI 56 a year as president, and several others have salaries as committee-men. In this case the President is ako one of the collectors, receiving a commission for money which passes through his hands. The guarantee of the due observance of the rules is, in fact, of the feeblest kind. In many of these societies these collectors receive 20 or 25 per cent, of the subscriptions they collected ; and as their object in to collect as much as possible, they ore often careless and indifferent as to the observance of the formalities which give the subscriber a claim upon the funds. Thousands of sabscriptions are thus collected from persons who are entirely ignorant of the rules of the society, of which they believe themselves to bo members, and who, not having conformed to those rules, find, when any dispute or difficulty arises, thatthey are without legal standing in the society. In other cases subscriptions still continue to he paid to defunot societies, and, in fact, every kind of injustice is inflicted on the poor by their means. But these are the abuses of what is, on the whole, a noble organisation of self -h (tip. Friendly Societies must be rescued from these abuses, and put upon a firmer basis of legal security., Tho people cannot themselves look into their accounts and teat their solvency, and the Government must undertake the duty 'or them. The Canadian Government has in this matter set us an example. It requires every such society to show its condition fully in its balance sheet, and to have the whole of its liabilities and assets published and veri fled annually. We must do this at home if the Friendly Society system is not to perish of extravagance and of the mistrust it i breeds.