FRIENDLY SOCIETIES 



1875-76 : one chief registrar and three assistants, 

 instead of three separate registrars for England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland with co-ordinate authority ; 

 special clause (30) dealing with collecting societies ; 

 deposit of rules by unregistered societies no longer 

 allowed ; annual audits required ; valuation of 

 assets and liabilities required every five years ; 

 public auditors and valuers to be appointed by the 

 treasury, but their employment not compulsory ; 

 the number of members who can apply to the 

 registrar for an award of dissolution reduced ; 

 further powers given to the registrar on this point. 

 Alterations in friendly society law subsequent to 

 1876 have been unimportant, and generally intro- 

 duced ' to declare the true meaning ' of some clause 

 in the Act of 1875. Note, however, should be 

 made of 50 and 51 Viet. chap. 56, which empowers 

 juvenile societies and branches to retain member- 

 ship till the age of twenty-one years, the former 

 limit being sixteen years. Societies and branches 

 consisting wholly of members between three and 

 twenty-one years of age may be registered, pro- 

 vided ( 1 ) they are in connection with some adult 

 society registered under the act, or a branch of 

 any such societv, or (2) in connection with some 

 institution or school. 



Owing to technical legal difficulties, the registry 

 office is unable to supply accurate information as 

 to the present numerical and financial strength of 

 the friendly society position ; but the writer, from 

 returns specially made to him, is in a position to 

 give the following estimate (which will be found 

 approximately correct) of the principal types of 

 society, registered and unregistered : 



Funds. 



13,103,000 

 1,500,000 



144,000 

 253,000 



2,000,000 

 2,286,000 



190,000 

 Total. . . .7,411,000 19,476,000 



(1) The affiliated societies are broadly dis- 

 tinguished from their competitors for public favour 

 by being before all things ' friendly ' fraternities, in 

 which the social element is the motor of action 

 sick and burial clubs, and something more. Long 

 ago this type of society crossed the seas arid accom- 

 panied the emigrant to his new home in ' Greater 

 Britain.' In constitution and government the 

 orders, as they are termed, are pure democracies. 

 First comes the individual branch lodge, court, 

 tent, or senate possessing an independence of 

 management (subject only to general law), and 

 retaining its own sick fund. Then succeeds the 

 district (the limbs, as it were, of the body), a 

 local gathering of branches within a certain given 

 area, in which the funeral allowance is reinsured ; 

 and, lastly, the central body itself, called by some 

 distinctive name (as Annual Movable Committee, 

 High Court Meeting), an annually or biennially 

 elected parliament of delegates, carrying out its 

 rules and regulations through a working executive. 

 The far and away largest bodies are the Oddfellows 

 (Manchester Unity) and the Ancient Order of 

 Foresters, appropriating between them 1,313,721 

 members out of the grand tot^i for the class and 

 10,495,000 of the funds. Other important orders 

 are United Order of Oddfellows ( 150,806), Temper- 

 ance Order of Rechabites ( 75,000 ), Ashton Unity of 

 Shepherds the strongest order in Scotland 

 (71,000), and Order of Druids (58,216). The 

 average cost of management is 7 per cent, of the 

 annual contributions. (2) Is a development of the 



(l) 

 (2) 

 (3) 



(4) 



(5) 

 (6) 

 (7) 



No. of Membei 



Affiliated Societies 2,024,000 



General with County Societies. .. 300,000 

 Peculiar Trade Societies 



(a) Railway Group 57,000 



(6) Miners' Permanent 



Relief Funds 230,000 



Local Societies, inclusive of 



Dividing Clubs 1.000,000 



Collecting Societies 3,590,000 



Societies of W< nnen 10,000 



Juvenile Societies . 200. OuO 



purely local class to meet the altered needs of the 

 day. The class consists of societies of divers 

 degrees of merit, but all possessing a common 

 central fund. The giant among them is the Hearts 

 of Oak (London), with its 115,284 members and 

 capital of close on one million sterling. The 

 county societies are the ' old established houses ' 

 belonging to the ' patronised ' group, and are being 

 deserted for the better known of the orders. (3) 

 This class is specially devoted to insurance against 

 the fatal and non-fatal accidents of hazardous 

 occupations, and is of interest as being largely used 

 by workmen to contract themselves out of the 

 Employers' Liability Act (1880). There has been 

 a recent development of peculiar trade societies, 

 and certain of the professions have established 

 benefit institutions e.g. Medical Sickness and 

 Annuity, and Clergy Friendly Societies, the former 

 possessing a membership of over 1000 and funds 

 to the value of nearly 25,000. (4) Local societies 

 are fast disappearing before the onward march of a 

 better class of mutual provident association. But 

 the low type of friendly society which periodically 

 divides its funds, and is always beginning afresh to 

 run in the thrift race, is sadly too prevalent ; the 

 increasing liability to sickness with advancing 

 years is altogether ignored ; a blind eye is turned 

 on the future. ( 5 ) Societies which gather in their 

 weekly or fortnightly pence by means of collectors 

 calling from door to door. Tne bulk of member- 

 ship is composed of the most necessitous poor, and 

 Erobably two-thirds are women or children. No 

 enefit beyond an insurance at death is given. 

 The actual number of societies forming the class is 

 a small one compared with the total number ; for 

 England only 47 out of about 24,000 different bodies 

 registered as societies or branches; in Scotland 5 

 out of 900 ; in Ireland none out of some 400. The 

 largest societies are the Royal Liver (1,211,259) 

 and the Liverpool Victoria Legal ( 1,003,787 ). The 

 expenses of management, with commissions, range 

 from 20 to 52 per cent, of the annual premiums. The 

 numerical increase of the class is only surpassed by 

 that of the Industrial Assurance Companies. (6) 

 Societies of women are but poorly represented in 

 the voluntary thrift army, and the few that exist 

 were mostly established in an unfinancial age. An 

 order which aims to be national in its area of 

 membership was, however, established in 1885 by 

 a clergyman of the Church of England (Rev. J. 

 Frome Wilkinson), which has already opened 

 branches in several counties ( one in Scotland ), and 

 should meet the ever-increasing economic needs of 

 women. The societv is registered as the United 

 Sisters' Friendly Society (Suffolk Unity). (7) 

 Juvenile societies are the thrift ' nurseries ' of the 

 adult societies, and are mostly confined to the affili- 

 ated class, the largest number of branches being in 

 connection with the Foresters, Manchester Unity, 

 and Rechabites. There is a steady increase in the 

 popularity of juvenile friendly society membership. 

 Tests of Financial Security and Good Manage- 

 ment. Registration, 'not because registry of itself 

 can make any society safe, but because its position 

 must be always unsafe without registry. ' Rates of 

 contribution for benefits, both sick and funeral, 

 on a graduated or sliding scale, according to age 

 on entry, which rates themselves shall be held by 

 actuarial authority sufficient to carry benefits con- 

 tracted for. Record of yearly sickness and mor- 

 tality experience kept, so that the valuer may be in 

 possession of sufficient data by which to estimate 

 the society's or branches' liabilities. Yearly audit 

 and five-yearly financial overhaul or efficient valu- 

 ation of assets and liabilities. Effect given, 

 without undue delay, to remedial measures recom- 

 mended by valuer, should liabilities exceed assets. 

 The several insurance funds kept separate, and 



