90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou. VIII. 
should rather attribute the increase to the diminution of physical and mental 
activity as the working man wears out. 
It was my hope to have been able to tabulate enough Canadian data 
to form an idea of sickness and death rates among our working classes, but 
the basis obtainable is not broad enough. As far asI can conjecture from 
the statistics laid before me, the Canadian mechanic’s life is somewhat 
better than the English, and the sick claims appreciably less, age for age. 
We have, however, as yet only the younger ages to observe, of persons who 
have not reached the years when illness becomes disabling for long spells. 
Having established the fact that sickness follows numerical laws as 
closely as mortality, and as I find, even more definitely—having come to 
know that by these laws there are both more and longer periods of illness 
with advancing age until total disability to work occurs, (such total dis- 
ability arising practically when the periods of illness become frequent)— 
it becomes plain that a society aiming to pay a weekly sum in lieu of wages, © 
which cannot be earned, must not depend upon good-will or other assess- 
ments, it must have reserves. The table of contributions given earlier 
shows that three times as much is paid as premium for sick benefits as to 
the funeral fund, and valuation shews that the necessary reserves to 
ensure safety for the sick benefit fund must be three times as large as for 
the funeral fund. I wish I could say they were so in all our societies. 
In discussing the subject with those interested in them, the argument 
has been used that as our lives are better, i.e., longer on the average 
than those known to English experience, and the sick claims, so far, less, 
then, ceteris paribus, a smaller premium should suffice here. The 
reasoning is, unfortunately, unsound. A more favourable death-rate and 
the higher rate of interest obtainable here have indeed a beneficial effect 
on the funeral fund, which is a species of small joint-life insurance for 
husband and wife, but, owing to the separation of the two funds, which 
ought not to be countenanced, that does not help the sick benefit fund, 
while the more favourable mortality simply gives a longer term during 
which the heaviest payments for sick benefits must be continued. On 
this subject Mr. Watson says:—(p. 45), 
“If the death rates be uniformly above a common standard, a society 
will gain by its release from a proportion of the anticipated sickness- 
benefit liability; but, on the other hand, it will lose, firstly by the ‘pre- 
mature’ payment of death benefits and consequent loss of interest on 
the capital thus withdrawn, and secondly, by the contribution income 
gradually falling below the amount anticipated by the standard. If the 
death rates be uniformly below a common standard, the effect on the finan- 
ces will be in each case in the contrary direction, the sickness claims being 
