SOCIAL ECONOMICS OF THE INDUSTRIAL ORDERS. 



of loss. It is obvious that, where individuals unite 

 for annuities, and too low charges are made, those 

 dying first will secure an over-proportion of the 

 benefits, and leave those who come behind nothing 

 but an empty purse. 



With a view to encourage persons of the humbler 

 classes to provide of themselves for their latter 

 years, the government obtained an Act (7 and 8 

 Victoria, cap. 83) to enable trustees of the legally 

 established savings-banks to sell annuities of not 

 less than four, or more than thirty, pounds upon 

 the security of the national credit. The same Act 

 provided that, in parishes where there was no 

 savings-bank, a society for granting such annuities 

 might be formed, provided that the rector or 

 minister of the parish, or a resident justice of peace, 

 should be one of the trustees. Any person above 

 fifteen years of age was entitled to purchase such 

 an annuity, which might be to commence immed- 

 iately, or at a future period of life, or for a limited 



term of years, at the pleasure of the party, and 

 might be paid either in one sum or in half-yearly 

 sums, convertible into quarterly by dividing the 

 annuity, and commencing the two parts at different 

 periods of the year. 



The whole arrangements of this Act were dic- 

 tated by the most considerate benevolence towards 

 the classes for whose benefit it was mainly in- 

 tended. In its various clauses provision is 

 made for enabling the party to make his annual 

 payments, or receive the annuity, in any other 

 society than the one with which the contract was 

 originally entered into. Upon the death of the 

 person on whose life the annuity depended, a sum 

 equal to one-fourth part of the said annuity (over 

 and above all half-yearly arrears thereof respect- 

 ively) will be payable to the person or persons 

 entitled to such annuity, or his, her, or their 

 executors or administrators (as the case may be), 

 provided such last-mentioned payment shall be 



claimed within two years after such decease, but 

 not otherwise ; provided also that the fourth part 

 of any expired life-annuity, payable under the 

 provisions of the said Act, will not be payable, nor 

 be paid upon, or in respect of any deferred life- 

 annuity, unless one half-yearly payment of such 

 deferred life-annuity shall have been actually paid 

 or become due at the time of the decease of the 

 nominee. 



Independently of the advantages which are thus 

 afforded to the industrious classes, of obtaining, 

 by small payments, a certain provision in old age, 

 or at any other stated period, secured by govern- 

 ment, and of which they cannot be deprived on 

 account of miscalculation, the tables of contribu- 

 tions have been so calculated, that if the purchaser 

 of a deferred life-annuity die before the time 

 arrives at which the annuity is to commence, the 

 whole of the money he has actually contributed 

 will be returned, without any deduction, to his 

 family. And if it does not exceed ,50, it is not 

 necessary that probate or letters of administration 



should be taken out. But if he has left a will, or 

 administration is taken out, no stamp or legacy 

 duty is payable in respect of the sum so returnable, 

 if the whole estate, &c. of the member is under 

 ,50 ; and again, if a purchaser is incapable of 

 continuing the payment of his yearly instalments, 

 he may, at any time, upon giving three months' 

 notice, receive back the whole of the money he 

 has paid. No annuity granted will be subject or 

 liable to any taxes, &c. ; nor can the same be 

 transferred or assigned, but must continue to be 

 the property, or be received for the benefit, of the 

 party by or for whom it was purchased ; but in 

 case of the bankruptcy or insolvency of the 

 purchaser of an annuity, the same is to be repur- 

 chased by the commissioners at a valuation accord- 

 ing to the tables upon which the annuity was 

 originally granted, and the money will be paid to 

 the assignee for the benefit of the creditors. 



From the above statement it will appear that 

 any deferred annuity, purchased by annual or other 

 payments, from a society established under the 



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